§ 36. Mr. WoolasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he is taking to ensure that new technology is properly used in the fight against crime. [112609]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeWe are taking a comprehensive range of measures to ensure that new technology is used more effectively to tackle crime.
The newly formed Property Crime Reduction Action team is taking forward work with industry to encourage the comprehensive electronic tagging or "chipping" of goods. The ability to track and trace goods effectively will have far-reaching implications for commerce and crime reduction.
Under the £153 million Closed Circuit Television Initiative, over £48 million has currently been allocated to some 280 schemes in England and Wales. All proposals are closely scrutinised to ensure Closed Circuit Television will contribute effectively to crime reduction as part of a wider local crime reduction strategy, and that the technology is used fairly and lawfully.
82WWe are developing proposals for the greater use of automatic number plate recognition systems by police forces.
The Police Scientific Development Branch of the Home Office provides technical, operational and policy support and also experimental development and research for all United Kingdom Police forces and the Home Office.
We are improving the use of Information Technology systems by the Police Service. The National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS) is a vehicle to enable better procurement and use of Information Technology. A major part of the NSPIS programme is the production of national software for police use. The Police Information Technology Organisation is developing the common data and technical architectures needed to support that software. These are being designed to ensure interworking between forces, inter-operability between systems in different forces and standard interfaces between police systems and those elsewhere within the criminal justice system.
The Police Information Technology Organisation is also rolling out a £120 million national automated fingerprint system (NAFIS) which will be capable of supporting a database of over 54 million ten-print sets and two million crime scene marks. It will be possible to process over 5,000 ten-prints and 5,000 scene of crime marks each day and make over one million fingerprint comparisons every second. The roll out will be completed by April 2001. We are also investing an extra £34 million over the next two years to expand the DNA database.
We are funding a project to assess the effectiveness of applying enhanced forensic science techniques to scenes of crime in identifying and successfully prosecuting those involved. That complements the expansion of the DNA database.
The Government will legislate when parliamentary time allows to give the police bulk access, through the Police National Computer (PNC), to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's driver records. Steps are also in hand to give the police ready access through the PNC to the Motor Insurance Industry database of insured drivers (which would become operational in 2001) and to computerised MOT records (which should be available from late 2002).
We are funding the Foresight Crime Prevention Panel which is identifying future opportunities for using advances in technology to reduce crime. It will publish a consultation document later this month. The Council of Europe is currently negotiating a cybercrime convention (most provisions are already in United Kingdom law) in which the United Kingdom is now a leading player. This is due for completion in December 2000. The United Kingdom is also working with its G8 partners in the High-tech Crime sub-group, looking at innovative and novel solutions to internet crime.