§ Mr. LetwinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many members of staff are employed by the National Technical Assistance Centre; [48483]
(2)what the cost of the National Technical Assistance Centre was in the last 12 months; [48481]
(3)what the remit is of the National Technical Assistance Centre; [48482]
(4)when the National Technical Assistance Centre was established. [48480]
§ Mr. BlunkettThe head of the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) was appointed in March 2001 in response to the 1999 Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit report "Encryption and Law Enforcement".
447WNTAC will provide assistance to the investigations in the United Kingdom intelligence and law enforcement agencies; by providing techniques for lawful interception of modern multimedia communications, and by processing those lawfully intercepted communications to provide intelligible material to the intercepting agencies. NTAC also provides techniques to derive intelligible evidence from lawfully seized computer data.
Since the summer of 2001 NTAC has been operational in its role in respect of lawfully seized computer data. Operational work in respect of lawfully intercepted communications is planned to commence in late summer 2002.
The provisional outturn for 2001–02 was £1.9 million. NTAC currently employs 33 staff.