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4 May 2006 : Column 1845W—continued
MI5 (Northern Ireland)
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many informers made redundant by the Police Service Northern Ireland since its creation have been recruited by MI5. [66523]
Mr. Charles Clarke: It is the longstanding policy of successive Governments not to comment on the operational activities of the Security Service.
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures are in place to ensure the sharing of information between MI5 and the Police Service Northern Ireland; and what recent steps he has taken to test these arrangements. [66528]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Information is routinely shared between the Security Service and Police Service Northern Ireland at all levels. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and I are satisfied that the information sharing arrangements work well and will continue to do so.
Nabeel Sami Fathallah
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much in benefits has been granted to Mr. Nabeel Sami Fathallah (HO Ref 10776940) since his arrival in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [67392]
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Mr. McNulty: Information relating to an individual is not routinely disclosed.
Northamptonshire Police Force
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide additional funding to bring the per capita spending for Northamptonshire police force up to the national average. [59190]
Hazel Blears: Government funding for police authorities is chiefly allocated using a funding formula that distributes resources on the basis of relative policing need. Damping is also applied to improve stability of funding by reducing year-on-year grant variations. Grant is not, and never has been, distributed purely on a per capita basis.
Northamptonshire police authority will receive its fair share of resources next year. Its 3.1 per cent. (+£2.1 million) increase in general grant is in line with the broadly flat rate increase of 3.1 per cent. for all police authorities in England and Wales. If the funding formula had been strictly applied, Northamptonshire would have received £0.8 million less. On top of general grant a range of other funding will also be available, including £1.9 million in special formula grant, a consolidation of four former specific grants that will enable the authority to operate more flexibly, and an estimated £7.7 million in specific grants and capital provision.
O'Connor Report
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will establish a national policing agency dedicated to countering terrorism and domestic extremism to address the findings in these areas of the O'Connor report. [40966]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Regional and national CT structures are already in place. The Association of Chief Police Officers' Committee on Terrorism and Allied Matters sets policy and strategic direction for counter-terrorism policing at a national level. Police counter-terrorist efforts are co-ordinated regionally and nationally through the regional intelligence cells, the work of the national co-ordinator of special branch and the national co-ordinator of terrorist investigations while ensuring that force special branches maintain the essential link to local policing and local communities. The Metropolitan Police Service has national counter-terrorism responsibilities including a number of specialist units which provide support to forces. As with other aspects of policing, these structures are kept under constant review.
Omagh Bombing
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek the resignation of (a) the head of MI5 and (b) members of her staff in connection with the Omagh bombing. [67213]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
No.
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Operation Trident
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has Operation Trident cost. [54473]
Hazel Blears: Expenditure allocated to specific enforcement operations in the Metropolitan Police Service is a matter for the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) and the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
The MPA will receive £1,818 million in general grant next year, an increase of 3.1 per cent. (£54.7 million) over the comparable figure for 2005–06. This is in line with the broadly flat rate increase of 3.1 per cent. for all police authorities in England and Wales. The MPA also gains £5.3 million from amending reports for 2004–05 and 2005–06 bringing the overall increase in general grant in 2006–07 to 3.4 per cent. In addition to this, it will receive £54.7 million in special formula grant, a consolidation of four former specific grants, as well as a range of other funding in specific grants, capital provision and to tackle terrorism.
Passports
Mr. Alan Reid: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to provide premises in Argyll and Bute, which first time passport applicants can attend for their interview. [68084]
Andy Burnham: I have placed a document in the Library setting out the planned provision for such interviews throughout the United Kingdom.
John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department has made of the costs of replacing lost or damaged biometric chips in passports and ID cards; who will be responsible for these costs; and from what sources funding will be drawn. [66889]
Andy Burnham: The current policy for replacing lost or damaged passports is that the customer makes a fresh application and pays the full cost for renewing the passport unless the document was clearly faulty at issue, there are no plans to change this policy for biometric passports. Every biometric passport goes through a vigorous quality assurance process before issuing to the public which ensures the passport reaches the public in full working order. Broadly comparable arrangements will be put in place for identity cards in due course.
Police Restructuring
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much he has spent on consultants' fees in evaluating the costs of the reorganisation of police forces; and which consultants he has engaged for this work. [62490]
Hazel Blears: Consultants from a number of organisations have been employed to assist in the process of assessing the financial case for change, including:
Due to the ongoing nature of this work, as some of the consultants are still working on this project, it would be premature to disclose costs at this stage.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role his Department will play in the appointment of members of the new merged Yorkshire police authority. [65791]
Mr. Charles Clarke: We envisage that any order made under section 32 of the Police Act 1996 amalgamating the Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire police areas would provide for each of the four precursor police authorities to appoint a specified number of their members to be members of the combined police authority. As such, there would be no role for the Home Secretary. The precise terms of the order are the subject of ongoing discussions with the police authorities concerned. The making of such an order is subject to our consideration of any objections received in response to the notice given by the Home Secretary of his intention to amalgamate the four forces.
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanism the Government will adopt to equalise the council tax precepts in Wales to take into account the proposed merger of the four Welsh police forces. [60356]
Hazel Blears: The financial implications of amalgamating different levels of council tax precept remain under consideration. No final decisions have yet been taken.
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