§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was to his Department of mobile phones supplied to ministers and officials in each year since 1997. [123149]
443W
§ Fiona MactaggartTo provide the hon. Member with a full answer will incur disproportionate cost. I can, however, provide information on mobile phones and associated equipment purchased via our central procurement unit since 1997, which is as follows:
Total expenditure, mobile phones and associated equipment £ 1997 175.00 1998 5,516.16 1999 163,933.83 2000 146,201.48 2001 46,491.25 The cost of mobile phones and associated equipment purchased for core Home Office staff via our central procurement unit during 2002 was £64,750. Information is not held centrally on call and line rental charges and could be provided, again, only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been under the Mobile Telephones (Reprogramming) Act 2002. [133970]
§ Ms BlearsThe information requested is not available through our formal statistical channels. Court proceedings for offences under the Mobile Telephone (Re-programming) Act 2002 only became identifiable in the statistics collected centrally in January 2003. Statistics for 2003 will be published in the autumn of 2004 to ensure all court data is validated and corrected.
However, police forces have been running operations and several arrests and charges have already been made under the Act. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 7 July 2003, Official Report, column 641W.