§ Mr. Chris Smithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what would be the cost of providing the information requested in the questions of the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury on 7 February, Official Report, c. 517; and if he will provide a breakdown of how these costs are calculated.
§ Mr. MellorThe information is not available centrally and would have to be extracted by the Thames Valley police by clerical inspection of police and court records of at least 6,000 prosecutions. I am unwilling to place this additional burden on them, given that the cost of this clerical work alone would well exceed £200.