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Child Pornography

Judy Mallaber: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what further steps he intends to take to ensure that credit card companies take action to prevent the cards issued by them being used to purchase child pornography on the internet; [21385]

(2) what assessment he has made of the steps that have been taken by credit card companies to combat the purchasing of child pornography on the internet. [21386]

Paul Goggins: I set out on 10 January 2005, Official Report, column 316W the various steps which have already been taken by payment card companies in conjunction with Government, law enforcement, and the children's charities to combat the purchase of child abuse images on line.

The Government continues to assess the impact of these initiatives in discussion with a wide range of organisations including payment associations.

With regard to the specific issue of whether an individual who uses a payment card to purchase images of child abuse could have the card involved in the purchase of images removed from them by the issuing card company. I understand that the Department for Constitutional Affairs is considering how changes to Schedule three of the Data Protection Act to enable payment card companies to legitimately hold and process sensitive data concerning an individual and their convictions would work in practice. Any such change would provide card issuers with the ability to remove an individual's card once they have been advised of the commission of an offence.

Correspondence

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letters from the hon. Member for Eastbourne of 28 September 2004, 9 May 2005, 28 June 2005 and 15 August 2005 regarding his constituents Mr. and Mrs. Tanner of Percival Crescent, Eastbourne. [29763]

Andy Burnham: The chief executive of the United Kingdom Passport Service, wrote to the hon. Member on 23 November 2005.

Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Minister for Immigration will reply to the letter of 9 August from the hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood, (acknowledged 11 August 2005, reference B18797/5), Home Office reference E1010147. [32337]

Mr. McNulty: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate wrote to my right hon. Friend on 25 November.
 
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Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Minister for Immigration will reply to the letter of 20 September from the hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood, Home Office reference H1047147, regarding Mr. Tasooji. [32338]

Mr. McNulty: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) replied to my right hon. Friend on 25 November.

Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of 20 September from the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood, on F. Scott, his Department's reference 51155584, acknowledgement reference B22357/5. [32464]

Mr. McNulty: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) wrote to my right hon. Friend on 25 November.

Criminal Records Bureau

Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what requirements there are for further Criminal Records Bureau checks for individuals providing private tuition to young people where the tutor is not a teacher and holds an enhanced disclosure certificate. [30782]

Andy Burnham: The Criminal Records Bureau does not impose any requirement on individuals to obtain a disclosure. The decision whether to obtain a disclosure for a specific eligible position rests solely with the recruiter, bearing in mind any existing legal obligations which may govern their employment sector.

Tutors working for private individuals, such as parents, are not generally eligible for enhanced disclosure because parents are not entitled to ask exempted questions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. An individual cannot at present obtain a disclosure without an exempted question being asked.

However, if tutoring is carried out in a formalised environment, such as a school, the position is likely to be eligible for disclosure by virtue of being in a regulated position" under the terms of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 (CJCSA). Nevertheless the CRB imposes no requirement on such individuals to obtain disclosures, although other guidelines may make the work eligible for checks.

Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action is being taken to deal with the backlog in Criminal Records Bureau checks. [26896]

Andy Burnham: There is no backlog of checks in the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). The Bureau's performance for Standard Disclosures has consistently exceeded the target of 93 per cent. issued within two weeks because the processing of a Standard Disclosure is entirely within the direct control of the CRB.

However, there are checks outstanding in a small number of police forces and this has led to a drop in the performance for Enhanced Disclosures overall and specifically for any application requiring a check by one of those forces.
 
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Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment his Department has made of the accuracy of data held by the Criminal Records Bureau; and if he will make a statement. [31294]

Andy Burnham: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) processes but does not hold information. The CRB accesses a number of sources of information to provide its disclosure service, including criminal record information held on the Police National Computer (PNC).

The police service is responsible for the accuracy of information recorded on the PNC. My Department commissioned some research which showed that conviction data was entirely accurate in the majority of cases. Additionally, a Code of Practice was published in January 2005 which set national targets for the timely entry of conviction data onto the PNC. Performance is monitored by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

In addition to the PNC, the CRB accesses information systems operated by other Government Departments. Those Departments are responsible for the accuracy of their respective systems.

Deportation

Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the compatibility of his proposed deportation policy with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. [31171]

Mr. McNulty: As we have made clear on a number of occasions deportations will only take place if the removal is consistent with our international obligations.

Fireworks Offences

Mr. Anthony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State forthe Home Department how many illegal fireworks were seized in (a) Norfolk, (b) the East of England, (c) England and (d) England and Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [28021]

Mr. Sutcliffe: I have been asked to reply.

The Department of Trade and Industry does not collect or hold figures on the number of seized illegal fireworks.

Various agencies have powers to seize illegal fireworks: Customs—illegally imported fireworks; Health and Safety Executive—illegally stored fireworks; Trading Standards—fireworks that do not comply with the regulations. However figures for these seizures are not collected centrally. My hon. Friend may wish to contact these agencies.

Identity Cards

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of theimpact of the proposed identity card scheme on (a) money laundering and (b) organised crime; and if he will make a statement. [26625]

 
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Andy Burnham: The identity cards programme is working with representatives from law enforcement agencies and Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs to fully map the impact of the proposed identity cards scheme on efforts to defeat money laundering and organised crime. This work has contributed to the development of the identity cards benefits cases, an overview of which was published on 27 June 2005.

False identities and false identity documents are standard 'tools of the trade' for organised criminal organisations. The work done with law enforcement agencies and Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs has confirmed that the identity card scheme can improve the intelligence picture available to the law enforcement agencies by providing fast, reliable access to identity and audit log data on intelligence targets and that greater certainty in establishing the identity of individuals involved in large cash transactions may have an additional deterrent effect in terms of money laundering and assist in investigations.

Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received on the arrangements for identity cardholders to register a change of address; and if he will make a statement. [27479]

Andy Burnham: The Identity Cards Programme Team has received a total of four letters from members of the public which mentioned updating address details on the National Identity Register. These letters were received between December 2004 and October 2005. These letters asked for clarification on the process for updating addresses on the Register and inquired whether there would be a charge for amending their record in this way.

It is intended that updates of addresses will be both easy and secure. There will be a variety of methods to update addresses on the National Identity Register. This could include over the internet, by telephone or in writing but in each case, in order to protect individuals from bogus attempts to change their address details, there would need to be a validation of identity. The Identity Cards Programme is currently investigating themost secure method of conducting such remotely conducted" transactions, including the use of new methods involving one-time passwords, which would provide much greater assurance than traditional methods.

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