§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the expenditure on equipping, programming and laying out those computer centres in England and Wales for which he is responsible during the last 10 years; and what proportion of such expenditure has been spent for computers for police purposes and non-police purposes.
§ Dr. SummerskillInformation is not available in the form asked for, but expenditure on computers with which my Department is concerned is set out below; the figures refer to financial years except where indicated:
1. Home Office and Metropolitan Police Joint A DP Unit (Mainly pay-roll, statistics, prison index) £000's Capital expenditure Current expenditure on goods and services 1967–68 … … 69 127* 1968–69 … … 309 283 1969–70 … … 99 311 1970–71 … … 79 364 1971–72 … … 111 357 1972–73 … … 682 472 1973–74 … … 173 776 1974–75 … … 45 870 1975–76 … … 1,100 1,002 1976–77 … … 162 1,445 Total … … 2,829 6,007 * Calendar years 1967–76 inclusive. It is estimated that about 55 per cent. of computer time has been for police purposes over the period.
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2. Other Police Purposes Police National Computer: 1969–70 … … 371 1 1970–71 … … 819 8 1971–72 … … 2,009 23 1972–73 … … 1,601 240 1973–74 … … 1,911 596 1974–75 … … 1,125 1,309 1975–76 … … 1,740 1,637 1976–77 … … 349 1,342 Total … … 9,925 5,156
£000's Capital expenditure Current expenditure on goods and services Police Scientific Research and Development—all expenditure treated ascurrent expenditure: 1968–69 … … — 30 1969–70 … … — 63 1970–71 … … — 19 1971–72 … … — 36 1972–73 … … — 46 1973–74 … … — 61 1974–75 … … — 93 1975–76 … … — 110 1976–77 … … — 194 Total … … — 652
"C" Department, Metropolitan Police: 1976–77 935 — Vehicle Fleet, Metropolitan Police: 1976–77 122 —
3. Other Non-Police Purposes Private Mobile Radio Frequency Assignment: 1974–75 71 95 1975–76 156 57 1976–77 26 125 Total 253 277
4. Summary Home Office and Metropolitan Police Joint ADP Unit 2,829 6,007 Other Police Purposes 10,982 5,808 Other Non-Police Purposes 253 277 Total 14,064 12,092
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department differentiating between police computers and non-police computers, whether he will list the computer centres in England and Wales for which he is responsible and the number of employees in each centre; what is the capacity in terms of each computer so listed; what kind of information is being programmed in; and to what use the information so programmed will be put.
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§ Dr. SummerskillThe following is the information requested:
Police National Computer Unit
This unit which operates on behalf of police authorities throughout Great Britain, has about 450 staff, twin central processors with a core capacity of 547K words and information relating to the prevention and detection of crime. The service is available only to the police.
Home Office and Metropolitan Police Joint A DP Unit
This unit has about 500 staff, five central processors with a total core capacity of 768K words and information both on Metropolitan Police matters (chiefly pay, personnel records, traffic tickets, catering accounts, vehicle fleet management, forensic work) and on Home Office matters (chiefly pay, a location index of inmates of prison service establishments and statistical work including criminal statistics).
Radio Regulatory computer installation
Three Home Office staff are employed solely in respect of this installation, the majority of the programming work being carried out by commercial contract. The central processor units have a total core capacity of 208K words and deal with the allocation of private mobile radio frequencies.
Other computers
Smaller installations include one with a capacity of 28K words used in stock control at Home Office Supply and Transport depots, and a scientific computer with 16K. words capacity used for research and programme development as part of the technical support provided by the Home Office to police forces in England and Wales.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what projects in computer design and programming are in progress; and whether he will list those being carried out, respectively, for police purposes and for those non-police purposes for which he is responsible.
§ Dr. SummerskillThere is a continuing process of improvement in the use of existing computers. As regards specific items of new work, the possibility of using a computer to maintain an index, now kept manually, of arrivals and departures of passengers who are subject to immigration control is being studied. Computerised issue and renewal of licences for private radio operators is also planned. For the police, plans are in hand for an index of wanted and missing persons, and the Metropolitan Police are developing programmes for the control of vehicle fleet maintenance. In addition, as632W mentioned in Cmnd. 6354, a computer system is being planned to handle information held by the Metropolitan Police about crime, criminals and their associates. This computer system is yet to be installed.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there are special facilities in any computer in which information about immigrant communities is being stored; and, if so, what kind of information is being programmed and to what use the information will be put.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe Home Office has no computer in which there are special facilities for the storage of information about immigrant communities.