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Identity Cards
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress is being made in introducing identity cards; and if he will make a statement. [85527]
Joan Ryan: The Identity Cards Act 2006 provides the statutory basis for a national identity cards scheme and received Royal Assent on 30 March 2006. The Government are committed to the rapid introduction of identity cards but, as we have always made clear, this is an incremental process. Identity cards will be implemented in a phased way, starting with biometric residence permits for foreign nationals in 2008 and rolling out to United Kingdom nationals thereafter.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his Answer to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael), of 15 February 2006, Official Report, column 2128W, on the cost of identity cards, how much has been spent in each financial year. [85645]
Joan Ryan: Total figures in each financial year for the costs of developing the identity cards scheme are as follows:
| £ million | |
| (1
)Provisional expenditure in April and May
2006. | |
Identity Fraud
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were charged with identity fraud in each of the last 10 years; and how many were convicted. [86262]
Joan
Ryan: The Government takes the problem of identity fraud
very seriously. There is no single offence of identity fraud. On 7 June
2006 we brought into force sections 25 and 26 of the Identity Cards Act
2006 which created new criminal offences of being in possession or
control of false identity documents. These offences relate to a wide
range of identity documents, including passports, driving licences,
ID
cards and immigration documents. The maximum penalty is 10 years
imprisonment for an offence of possession with intent to use the
document for establishing registrable facts about another person, such
as name, address, date of birth and other personal details, and two
years imprisonment for possession without reasonable excuse.
Investigation of offences under these provisions are already underway
and statistics on the number of prosecutions and convictions will be
published in due
course.
There is also a range of other criminal offences to combat identity fraud. These include, for example, the offences in the Theft Acts of 1968 and 1978 of obtaining property by deception (property includes money), obtaining services by deception and obtaining a money transfer by deception. The number of these offences that were committed using a false or stolen identity is not recorded centrally. However, identity theft and identity fraud questions were incorporated into the British Crime Survey in 2005 and the results should give us more information on the number of victims and the types of fraud that are being committed.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding has been allocated to tackle identity fraud (a) in 2006 and (b) over the next five years. [86352]
Joan Ryan: There is a wide range of activity within the Home Office, Identity and Passport Service, other government departments, law enforcement agencies and the private sector to tackle identity fraud. This includes our plans for identity cards and the improvements we continue to make to the security of the UK Passport which are now issued with a digital facial image.
The Home Office established the Identity Fraud Steering Committee (IFSC) in 2003 to work with public and private sector organisations, to identify and implement cost-effective measures to counter identity fraud, and to co-ordinate the activity in this area.
In addition to all the above, in the current financial year, a budget of £200,000 has been specifically allocated within the Identity and Passport Service to fund identity fraud reduction activity, such as our campaign to raise awareness among the public of how they can protect themselves against identity fraud and what to do if they become a victim. Funding for future years has yet to be allocated.
Islamist Terrorism
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to tackle Islamist terrorism; and if he will make a statement. [85477]
Mr.
McNulty [holding answer 17 July 2006]: The United
Kingdom faces a continuing threat from individuals who believe they can
advance their aims by committing acts of terrorism here in the UK and
against our citizens and interests abroad. The
Government's counter terrorism strategy—known as
CONTEST—was published on 10 July and explains the framework we
have implemented to tackle terrorism in the
UK.
The key to preventing terrorism is not only improved security and legislative arrangements: these alone will not defeat terrorism. A key focus of Government are to engage in genuine and meaningful dialogue with the Muslim communities and to tackle difficult issues.
Mini Motorcycles
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) cautions and (b) arrests were made for the illegal use of mini motorcycles in the London Borough of Enfield in each of the last three years; and how many such motorcycles were seized in the borough in each year. [85887]
Mr. McNulty: The information is not held centrally.
Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how often the police have used their powers to seize unlicensed mini-motors being misused on public land under the Police Reform Act 2002 and the Road Traffic Act 1988; [85908]
(2) what assessment he has made of the merits of encouraging greater use of antisocial behaviour orders to tackle misuse of unlicensed mini-motors on public land; [85907]
(3) whether he has estimated how many young people possess a mini-motor or off-road vehicle. [85909]
Mr. McNulty: The information is not collected centrally.
Muslim Brotherhood
Mr. Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which organisations with links to the Muslim Brotherhood received money from his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and how much each organisation received. [86269]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is held centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Online Passport Applications
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the reasons are for delays in processing online passport applications; and what average time a person applying online waited for the delivery of their new passport in the last 12 months. [84907]
Joan Ryan: On 16 May 2006, the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) introduced the second trial phase of its online passport application system, EPA2, from its Newport office.
Soon after its introduction, the EPA2 system encountered technical problems, making the online application process less effective than desired. The IPS invoked contingency plans on 5 June and suspended the system, replacing it with EPA1, the earlier version of IPS’s online application system, which is operating well. To ensure customers received the best possible service levels, IPS wrote to those customers who had applied through EPA2 and were still waiting, to recommend that they submit replacement applications and IPS has generally issued passports to these customers within a two days.
Approximately 18,000 applications were received via EPA2 and all are expected to have been processed by 14 July. The IPS has issued 6.6 million passports this year.
The EPA1 system advises applicants to allow four weeks to receive their passport. However, on-line applications are included in the IPS operating target to turn round 99.5 per cent. of straightforward applications for the standard service within 10 working days once we receive the completed and signed application (which for an EPA1 case will have been prepopulated and sent to the applicant for completion.) The IPS annual report and accounts, expected to be published later this month, will show that this target was met for the financial year ended 31 March 2006.
Operation Pentameter
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests have been made as a result of Operation Pentameter; what the countries of origin are of those (a) arrested and (b) trafficked; and if he will make a statement. [80658]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 27 June 2006]: There have been a total of 232 arrests made as a result of Operation Pentameter which to date has resulted in 134 people being charged with trafficking related offences. The majority of those arrested for offences related to trafficking under this operation are British, Chinese, Asian, East European or from the Balkans. The majority of rescued victims come from Asia, the Far East and Eastern Europe.
Oxycondone
Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2006, Official Report, column 1330W, on oxycodone, what estimate he has made of the effects on (a) the number of jobs and (b) the balance of payments if producers of oxycodone formulations moved the manufacture of these formulations to the Republic of Ireland from the UK. [86134]
Mr. Coaker: No such estimates have been made.
Paedophiles
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many registered paedophiles are resident in the Northumbria police force area; what steps are taken by (a) the police and (b) other agencies to protect the public from re-offending by those registered; and if he will make a statement. [85421]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Details of the number of registered sex offenders in the community are incorporated into the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) Annual Report for each police/probation area of England and Wales. The report for Northumbria shows that there were 851 registered sex offenders living in the in the area as at 31 March 2005. The data is not broken down by victim age.
The Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) imposed a duty on each of the 42 police and probation areas in England and Wales to work together to protect the public from sexual and violent offenders. MAPPA brings together the police, probation and Prison Services into what is known as the MAPPA Responsible Authority. A number of other agencies are under a duty to co-operate with the Responsible Authority. These include local social care, health, education and housing services.
MAPPA provides for risk assessment which is more comprehensive, benefiting from a wide range of information; and better co-ordinated and more robust risk management planning, drawing upon interventions from the various agencies involved.
A sex offender who is required to register, must within three days of conviction or caution (or a relevant civil order being made), notify the police, in person and at a prescribed police station, of his name, address, date of birth and national insurance number. If the offender is in prison on the day that this requirement falls due then he must make his notification within three days of his release. If an offender fails to comply, they commit a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
Passport Fraud
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to combat passport fraud; and if he will make a statement. [84849]
Joan Ryan [holding answer 17 July 2006]: The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is engaged in a range of initiatives designed to enhance the security of the passport issuing process and the UK passport itself. Because of the nature of fraud and the way in which criminals operate in seeking to obtain passports illegally, IPS takes a holistic approach to enhancing security. The initiatives which are under way are therefore designed to ensure that each part of the passport operation contributes to the security of the whole system and ensures the integrity of the UK passport.
The IPS corporate and business plan for 2006-16 which was published on 21 April 2006 describes these initiatives and sets out its strategic objectives for fraud prevention. This programme of work includes:-
Introduction of more secure passports incorporating biometrics identifiers. The first UK e.Passport was issued on six March, and rollout to all customers should be completed by the end of August;
Introduction next year of mandatory interviews for first time adult passport applicants. Enhancement of management information, monitoring and sampling processes to enable the development of fraud reduction and identity authentication targets and objectives;
The application, from March of this year, of the social footprint approach to confirming an individuals identity through the personal identification process (PIP);
Using facial recognition technology to identify fraudulent duplicate applications;
Continuing to improve the arrangements for the reporting of lost, stolen and recovered passports, and the storage and the sharing of that data with UK Border Control, and Interpol, and other agencies;
Building on the 80 per cent. reduction in losses of passports in the post through the use of secure delivery, the implementation of measures including improved address management to further reduce losses;
Continued development of PIP to deliver a more comprehensive biographical footprint check including on line access to UK birth and death records, and naturalisation/registration records;
Further development of IT systems to build on the automatic checks of applications that already take place, to better link passport records to an individual; and
Planning for the introduction of fingerprints in passports by 2009 including use of this technology to detect fraudulent duplicate identities.
Data sharing and the positive validation of passport data is critical to the fight against fraud. The IPS has developed Omnibase which provides secure web access to passport information for FCO consular posts abroad, UK’s Border Control authorities, The Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency, Criminal Records Bureau and other Government Departments. From July of this year, and building on successful pilots, IPS plan to extend this passport validation service (PVS) to financial institutions who receive passports as evidence of identity from customers opening bank accounts, seeking mortgages or undertaking other financial transactions. The pilots have already shown that PVS can support users in the identification of suspicious passports and prevent fraud.
Finally, supported by the powers in section 25 of the Identity Cards Act that target the misuse of identity documents, IPS is continuing to work closely with the police service, UK Border Control and other Government Departments in operations to tackle fraud.
Police
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will visit Monkmoor police station in Shrewsbury to meet local police officers. [58157]
Mr. McNulty: I will be very happy to consider such an invitation from any police force.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the running cost was of each police force in England and Wales in each of the last three financial years; and what the estimated running costs are of each of the new proposed police forces in the next three financial years. [73281]
Mr. McNulty: Estimated net expenditure by police authority in each of the last three years is set out in the table.
Budget management for each police authority area is a matter for the authority and the chief officer, who are responsible for prioritising local needs.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers per 100,000 residents there are in each police authority in England. [85513]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is given in the following table.
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