§ Mr. LivingstoneTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Brent, East on 9 May,Official Report, column 224–25, what are the security classifications of each of the four bulletins summarised in the table; how many approved customers are currently served by DRIC; and if he will make a statement on the range and nature of these customers. [34475]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotThis is a matter for the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency under its framework document. I have asked the chief executive to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from John Chisholm to Mr. Ken Livingstone, dated 3 July 1996:
I have been asked to reply to your question following up my letter to you of 9 May about the Defence Research Information Centre (DRIC).The security markings of the DRIC Abstracts. DRIC Standard Profiles and Overseas Citation lists mentioned in my letter can be classified as Secret, Confidential, Restricted or Unclassified depending on the content. The DRIC Newsletter is an Unclassified publication.It is not easy to decide in some circumstances how many "end-user" customers are served by DRIC. For example if a library or information centre is the channel of communication with DRIC there will be a large number of end users. One measure which gives an idea about the level of demand is the number of transactions performed by DRIC over a year. Using this approach, we experience in the order of 8,000–10,000 customer transactions each year.You also asked about approved customers. We define these as individuals or organisations who justify their need for, and are qualified to receive, the information requested—the cost of which is recovered by the appropriate charging mechanism. Approved customers cover a wide range of organisations including DERA; MOD; The Procurement Executive; The Armed Forces; MOD Next Steps Agencies; Other Government Departments; Overseas Governments; NATO; UK Contractors; Universities or Colleges; Overseas Contractors; Overseas Universities or Colleges.I hope this is helpful.