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11 Dec 2006 : Column 828W—continued
Departmental Electricity
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of the electricity used by his Department was generated from (a) renewable sources and (b) on-site microgeneration facilities during the last period for which figures are available. [106070]
Mr. Byrne: In 2004-05, the latest year for which figures have been published, 17 per cent. of the electricity used by the Home Office including the publicly operated prisons was generated from renewable sources and approximately 0.03 per cent. from on-site microgeneration.
Departmental Estate
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State forthe Home Department what plans he has for the development of Home Office land acquired from the Ministry of Defence on ‘A’ site at Arncott; and whether he plans to use emergency powers to develop the site. [103371]
Mr. Byrne: The land at site A at Arncott remains under consideration as a potential location for a secure immigration removal centre. There are currently no plans to use emergency powers to develop the site.
Departmental Expenditure
Jim Cousins:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what payments his Department has
made to security firms for protection services since 1997; for what purposes each payment was made; which 20 businesses have been paid the greatest amount for such services in that period; and what the amount was in each case. [106003]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 28 November 2006]: The Department does not hold central records of the payments that it has made to security firms for protection services since 1997, or of the 20 contractors that have been paid the greatest amount in that period. To obtain this information would incur disproportionate cost.
Information on the total spend with contractors for the last two financial years and the current financial year to date is in the table.
Ecovert FM Ltd is the Home Office headquarters private finance initiative contractor and provide a 24-hour, seven days a week security guarding service for 2 Marsham street via its sub-contractor First Security Group. The guarding costs are one element of the overall PFI bill and the figures in the table are estimated costs. Capita Business Services is the Criminal Records Bureau's public-private partnership contractor and provides a 24-hour, seven days a week security guarding service via their sub-contractor.
The remaining contractors provide 24-hour, seven days a week security guarding services for other Home Office and executive agency buildings. Security guarding services include protection from damage or distress caused by accident, fire, terrorist or criminal activity, protection of people, the premises and property and control of access and egress.
Physical security measures are provided to the Immigration and Nationality Directive estate and include the following elements: provision for intruder detection, closed circuit television, automatic access control and metal detection systems. These measures are provided by MOD Security Services Group and the annual cost for the last two years is £3 million per annum.
| Total year spend | |||
| £ | |||
| Contractor | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| (1) To November 2006 (2) To September 2006 (3) To October 2006 | |||
Departmental Funding
Mr. Hoban:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what conferences have been funded
in whole or in part by his Department in the last 12 months; how many attendees there were at each; and what the cost of each conference was to his Department. [106534]
Mr. Byrne: The amount spent on conference activity by the Home Office in 2005-06 was £10,594,000 including on: events associated with 7 July 2005 London bombings; engagement with the Muslim communities; “Tackling Drugs: Changing Lives”; the Bichard Review; the EU Presidency; new asylum model and rebalancing of sentencing. To gain the information about what conferences have been funded in whole or in part by his Department in the last 12 months and how many attendees there were at each could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Staff
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many value for money exercises on the use of (a) management consultants and (b) professional advisers were conducted by his Department in each of the last five years for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [103010]
Mr. Byrne: Requirements for management consultants and professional advisers are subject to value for money reviews at the point of purchase. The commercial teams across the Home Department follow Office of Government Commerce best practice guidelines. Records are not held centrally. Information on the number of cases for each of the past five years is not available as the cost of collating would be disproportionate.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what disciplinary action has taken place in his Department since his appointment; and if he will make a statement. [107130]
Mr. Byrne: A full response to this question could be provided only at disproportionate cost, as disciplinary action is delegated across the Department to management levels.
However, we are able to provide the following details of the number of centrally recorded penalties that have been applied to staff as a result of disciplinary action in the core Home Office and its agencies from 5 May 2006 up until 31 October 2006.
Warnings—158
Dismissals—48
Penalties other than warnings and dismissals—22
Other disciplinary action short of dismissal can include, when both parties agree (singularly or in combination) a ban on promotion, financial penalties, formal counselling, regrading and retraining, although this list is not exhaustive.
DHL
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department paid to DHL in each financial year between 1997-98 and 2005-06. [104181]
Mr. Byrne: The payments that have been made to DHL in 2004-05 and 2005-06 are as follows:
| £ | |
Robust information on payments to DHL prior to 2004-05 is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
DNA Database
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the guidance issued by his Department on the release of information from the National DNA Database to overseas police authorities; and if he will make a statement. [101784]
Joan Ryan: The Home Office does not issue such guidance. Requests for the release of information from the National DNA Database to overseas police authorities are dealt with by the UK National Central Bureau for Interpol (UK NCB) based at the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which acts in accordance with its internal procedures. Requests are only processed where it is clear that they are in the interest of prevention and detection of crime, national security or the data subject (i.e. the individual who is the subject of the exchange request). They are also subject to a risk assessment, taking into account the justification and the proportionality of disclosure of the information in line with human rights legislation. If cleared for processing, a one-off search of the DNA database is made by the custodian and information fed back to UK NCB.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many DNA profiles of UK citizens recorded on the national DNA database have been shared with overseas police authorities. [101785]
Joan Ryan: The National DNA Database records the names of those who have been arrested and had a DNA sample taken, and the force that arrested them, but not whether they are UK citizens.
The mechanism for handling requests from overseas police authorities for information from the NDNAD is that those requests are sent to the UK National Central Bureau for Interpol (UK NCB), based at the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which considers whether the request is in the interest of prevention and detection of crime, national security or the data subject (i.e. the individual who is the subject of the exchange request). It also carries out a risk assessment, taking into account the justification and the proportionality of disclosure of the information in line with human rights legislation. If UK NCB clears the request, a one-off search of the DNA Database is made and information fed back to UK NCB.
Before 2004, no central records were kept on requests from overseas authorities for data from the NDNAD as these were very rare. Between August 2004 and May 2006,121 profiles from the NDNAD were provided to UK NCB to supplement fingerprint information (i.e. fingerprints had been supplied to an
overseas authority in relation to an individual residing in their country following which that authority made a further request for the individual’s DNA profile).
Also, during the financial years 2004-05 and 2005-06, 398 NDNAD search results were provided to UK NCB in response to requests from overseas authorities, either to see if there was anyone on the NDNAD who matched a DNA trace taken from the scene of a serious crime abroad, or to identify an unknown deceased person who may have been British. However, there is no central record of the number of cases in which these searches produced a result that led to a profile being sent to an overseas authority, and the number in which the search result was simply that there was no trace on the NDNAD.
The benefits of the international exchange of DNA are illustrated by a case in 2000. Sixty Chinese immigrants were found in a Dutch-registered truck in the port of Dover, 58 of whom had suffocated to death.
Following a complex Anglo-Dutch investigation, Perry Wacker, a Dutch lorry driver, and Ying Quo, of Essex, were sentenced to 14 and six years respectively at Maidstone Crown Court in 2001 for manslaughter and conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into the UK; another 10 individuals were convicted in the Netherlands. In both the UK and the Netherlands, exchanged DNA data was used as evidence in court and formed a key element in the case.
John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of safeguards designed to prevent (a) hacking and (b) identity theft from the National DNA Database; and when these safeguards will next be reviewed. [106278]
Joan Ryan: The security policy developed by the custodian of the National DNA Database is to keep the threat of both hacking into and identity theft from the NDNAD under constant review. This includes independent security penetration testing carried out by specialists approved by the national information assurance authority. Such tests are carried out on a regular basis and have shown that the NDNAD systems provide a high level of protection against the threat of external attacks.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people registered on the National DNA Database were subsequently (a) convicted, (b) charged but not convicted and (c) not convicted in relation to the events leading to the DNA sample being taken, broken down by (i) gender, (ii) age group and (iii) ethnicity. [107650]
Joan Ryan: The National DNA Database (NDNAD) records the DNA profile for a particular individual. It does not hold data on arrest and criminal records. This information is held on the police national computer. The facilities do not exist to cross-refer between all records on the NDNAD and PNC to the level of detail that would be required to provide the information sought.
However, we can say that information provided by the police information technology organisation from the PNC indicated that, as at 14 July 2006, when there
were approximately 3,457,000 individuals on the database, 2,922,624 of these persons also had an entry on the PNC. Of these, 2,317,555 (79.3 per cent.) had a conviction or caution (i.e. a criminal record). The difference between the two figures is attributable to: young persons under 18 who have a formal warning or reprimand recorded on PNC; persons who have been charged with a recordable offence where proceedings are on-going; and persons who have been arrested for a recordable offence but against whom no further action was taken.
Family Support Projects
Jon Cruddas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which areas have established intensive family support projects for families at risk of eviction due to antisocial behaviour. [105119]
Mr. McNulty: We are working with around 50 areas to establish a national network of family intervention projects, for which we will provide funding in 2006-07 and 2007-08. We expect to confirm the areas in which we have agreed to fund family intervention projects early in the new year.
Fingerprinting
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what statutory provisions authorise the taking of roadside fingerprint tests. [104497]
Mr. McNulty: Section 117 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 amended the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to allow police officers the power to take fingerprints away from a police station, if need be without consent, following an offence and prior to an arrest.
Section 117 of the 2005 Act has not yet been brought into force and its enactment will be dependent on the successful outcome of the current trial of hand-held mobile fingerprint readers.
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department to whom fingerprint records obtained at roadside tests will be made available. [104498]
Mr. McNulty: The Lantern device is a tool to aid officers in identifying individuals at the roadside and hence to assist them in deciding how to proceed. The fingerprints taken are searched against the national fingerprint collection (IDENT1) and a result is returned containing details of any matches. No fingerprint records are created and the fingerprints are not retained.
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what statutory provisions persons who refuse roadside fingerprint tests may be required to attend police stations for their identity to be verified. [104499]
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