To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have (a) been assessed, (b) warranted further investigation, (c) been deemed to be of interest, (d) been arrested, (e) been prosecuted and (f) been convicted under Project Semaphore in each of the last three years; and upon what charges each such prosecution was brought. (190356)

[holding answer 28 February 2008]: The information is as follows:

Project Semaphore has an annualised passenger rate of 30 million.

When a passenger’s details suggest further investigation is required or the passenger is of interest, an alert is sent out to the relevant agency. To date, since its inception on 10 January 2005, a total of over 20,000 alerts have been sent by Semaphore. These alerts numbered 1,619 in 2005, 6,196 in 2006 and 11,166 in 2007.

As at 13 February 2008, there have been a total of over 1,600 arrests of passengers where alerts have been sent by Semaphore. Broken down by year: 125 in 2005, 629 in 2006 and 748 in 2007.

Feedback from police forces to Semaphore is returned only on the number of arrests made. No other detail is passed as a matter of course, e.g. prosecution, conviction, etc.