Police: Information and Communications Technology

Sir Paul Beresford
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many police forces in England and Wales have referred cases to the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) involving passwords in each year since NTAC’s inception; how many cases in each year were resolved within three months; and what the average time frame was for a case to be resolved in each year;

(2) how many police forces in England and Wales have referred cases involving encryption to the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) in each year since NTAC’s inception; how many such cases were resolved within three months; and what the average time frame for such cases being resolved was in 2006-07.

David Miliband
[holding answer 12 November 2007]: I have been asked to reply.

The number of police forces in England and Wales that have referred cases to the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) for assistance to process lawfully obtained protected electronic information has been:

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|              |Number|
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|2001          |10    |
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|2002          |20    |
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|2003          |22    |
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|2004          |23    |
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|2005          |18    |
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|2006          |21    |
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|2007 (to date)|18    |
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As my right hon. Friend the then Foreign Secretary (Margaret Beckett) informed the House in her written ministerial statement on 31 October 2006, Official Report, column 11WS:

“The National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) was formally transferred from the Home Office to Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in April 2006. As the Minister responsible for GCHQ, I now have ministerial oversight of its activities.”

It is the long-standing policy of the Government not to comment on intelligence matters including the work of the intelligence agencies.