Download or read book Policing Process of Home Office Leaks Inquiry written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 27 November 2008 a senior Member of Parliament and Opposition spokesman, Mr Damian Green, was arrested by police and his home and offices searched in connection with an investigation into the leak and publication of a number of government documents. Press reports indicated that Mr Green was believed to have received government documents from a Home Office official, Mr Christopher Galley, who had been arrested eight days earlier and who had subsequently admitted to having leaked some documents. This series of events, and particularly the fact that Mr Green's office at the House of Commons was searched without the police producing a warrant, caused considerable disquiet. The Committee's remit was to review the internal processes of the House administration for granting permission for such action (as police searches of Members' offices and seizure of their papers), and to make recommendations for the future. As a starting point, the reasons why the police were requested to investigate the suspected disclosure of government information and how many disclosures, the type of information that had been leaked, in particular, whether any of it was relevant to national security or was otherwise classified, and the efforts that had been made to discover the source of the leaks before the police were called in. Also the Committee wished to disentangle the roles of the Home Office and the Cabinet Office in the investigation process. The Committee concluded the Home Office appears to have followed best practice for investigating leaks, as set out in the Cabinet Office's Memorandum to the Committees' sister Committee. But there are concerns that growing frustration in both the Home Office and the Cabinet Office may have led officials to give an exaggerated impression of the damage done by the leaks that could reasonably be presumed to have emanated from the Home Office. The Committee thought it was unhelpful to give the police the impression that the Home Office leaker(s) had already caused considerable damage to national security. The Cabinet Office's guidance to departments says that it is appropriate to involve the police in leak investigations when they involve "a serious and damaging impact on the functioning of a Department and suspicion of leaking sensitive information". However, it is easy to imagine circumstances in which a leak of sensitive information could lead to a damaging impact on the functioning of a Department without falling within the categories laid down in statute. The Cabinet Office's guidance therefore seems to leave open the possibility of involving the police in an investigation without any suspicion let alone evidence that a criminal offence under the Act has taken place. The Committee recommend that the Cabinet Office revise its guidance to preclude this possibility.

Download or read book Leaks and whistleblowing in Whitehall written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-08-10 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee calls for better and more accessible procedures for civil servants to raise concerns about the conduct of government. A route should to be established whereby evidence that a minister had misled Parliament or the public could be reported to Parliament following a complaint by a civil servant. Leaks damage trust within government and trust in government. The Committee concludes that leak investigations are often hamstrung by the fact that many leaks are politically motivated, including leaks from ministers and special advisers. The most effective way to prevent leaks by civil servants is to have accessible, effective and visible ways for individuals to raise concerns about the conduct of government, either internally or through an external oversight body, the Civil Service Commissioners. The report makes the following key recommendations: the Civil Service Commissioners should have the power to report to Parliament evidence indicating that the government was misleading Parliament or the public or the fact that the Civil Service has refused to act on a justified complaint; the Commissioners should also conduct independent investigation of breaches of confidentiality by special advisers; the leaking of information should only be a criminal matter where there is a breach of the Official Secrets Act or there is evidence of serious criminal misconduct; the Cabinet Office, Heads of Departments and the Civil Service Commissioners should do more to ensure that potential whistleblowers know how to raise concerns and have the confidence to come forward with them.

Download or read book Freedom of Information written by Patrick Birkinshaw and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 579 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enacted in 2000 and in operation in the UK since 2005, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act has revealed information which has generated calls for constitutional reform. A massive 'information jurisprudence' has developed through the decisions of the Information Commissioner, the Information Tribunal and the courts. Governments' responses to the war on terror have involved increased resort to claims of national security and accompanying secrecy, but these developments have to exist alongside demands for FOI and transparency. FOI has to balance access to and protection of personal information, and major amendments have been made to the Data Protection Act in order to balance the competing demands of transparency and privacy. This detailed discussion of FOI laws and personal data laws examines the historical development of secrecy, national security and government, and their modern context.

Download or read book The Home Office s response to terrorist attacks written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-02-02 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calls for the merger of many different counter-terrorism committees into a single, formalised National Security Committee, chaired by the Home Secretary or Prime Minister and assisted by a National Security Advisor.

Download or read book Police searches on the Parliamentary Estate written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee on Issue of Privilege and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 1040-i, ii and ii, session 2008-09. About the police search on 27 November 2009 of the Parliamentary offices of Damian Green MP, who had been leaked some restricted papers by a Home Office official

Download or read book The Work of the Independent Police Complaints Commission written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite an ever-increasing workload the IPCC does little to prevent complaints against police behaviour in the first instance by improving forces' complaints procedures, and despite a budget of £35 million per annum the organisation lacks clear measures of success. Despite the IPCC possessing staff of around 400 people, the vast majority of complaints against police behaviour are investigated by the force concerned. Of the 30,000-plus complaints against police behaviour last year less than 250 were directly managed by the IPCC which represents less than 10 per cent of "serious" complaints. In 99 cases out of 100, and despite the existence of an independent, statutory body, complaints made against police behaviour will be investigated by the police. The Committee also raised concerns at the use of ex-police officers within the IPCC, these officers can often end up investigating possible ex-colleagues in their former force. The Home Affairs Committee is convinced that the police should be placing a much greater onus on resolving complaints in an open, transparent and satisfactory manner themselves and calls upon the IPCC to produce a detailed plan of how the Commission, working with bodies such as HMIC and NPIA, will improve police performance in this area.

Download or read book Policing of the G20 Protests written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-29 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The policing of the G20 Protests in April 2009 was a remarkably successful operation; more than 35,000 protesters demonstrated in the centre of London with a police presence of several thousand, yet there was a minimum of disruption. Aside from a few high-profile incidents, the policing of the G20 Protests passed without drama. However, these incidents and the tactics that led to them caused considerable adverse comment and have the potential to damage the public's faith in the police. The use of containment (detaining people in a confined area for a sustained period of time), and distraction tactics (the controlled use of force against those who appear hostile) while legitimate according to the police rule-book, shocked the public. Whether they should continue to be used must form the basis of a wide-ranging discussion on the future policing of public protests. Police communications with the media and the protesters must also improve. This would require the police, media and protesters to engage better with one another both before and during the protest. There are no circumstances in which it is acceptable for officers not to wear identification numbers and urgent action must be taken to ensure that officers have the resources to display identification at all times; those officers found to be consciously removing their identification numbers must face the strongest possible disciplinary measures. While the vast majority of officers on duty performed very well, the Committee is concerned that untrained and inexperienced officers were placed in such a highly combustible atmosphere. It cannot condone the use of untrained, inexperienced officers on the front-line of a public protest and feel that an element of luck must be attributed to the success of the operation.

Download or read book Police service strength written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-01-26 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Home Affairs Committee says that, faced with the prospect of funding cuts, the police service will have to fundamentally re-think the way in which it provides back-office functions in order to support the front-line. It says across the board the service needs more support from Government to allow the service to find new ways of maximising service levels and efficiency, such as involving the private sector, or exploring force mergers. Although figures show overall rises in both the number of police officers and the number of police staff employed across the service over the past five years this varied significantly across forces with 13 forces reporting a reduction over the same period. On the basis of provisional financial information from the Government, some forces are planning to cut officer numbers in the next financial year. The position after 2011 is unclear as the Government has given no indication of funding settlements after that, but all forces believe they will have to make significant spending cuts. The Committee believes it may be time to review the entire means by which money is allocated to forces, as the distribution of the police national grant is seen as a barrier to maximising resources. It has become clear to the Committee that voluntary mergers can enable forces to make substantial savings. And in the right circumstances, the private sector can provide the police with expertise they may lack, value for money in service delivery and a source of up-front investment.

Download or read book UK Border Agency written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow-up to "The work of the UK Border Agency" (2nd report, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780215542465) and "The E-Borders programme" (3rd report, session 2009-10, HC 170, ISBN 9780215542854)

Download or read book Immigration cap written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-11-03 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government intends to place an immigration cap on non-EEA economic migrants to the UK. This is currently controlled through the points based system (PBS) under which those wishing to work or study in the UK must gain points for certain attributes in order to qualify for entry. The PBS consists of five tiers: Tier 1: Highly-skilled migrants; Tier 2: Skilled workers with a job offer; Tier 3: Low skilled workers (indefinitely suspended); Tier 4: Students; Tier 5: Temporary Workers and Youth Mobility (primarily non-economic routes). This report examines: the impact a cap would have on the ability of UK business and industries to recruit the skills and staff they require; the numbers of skilled and non-skilled migrants likely to be affected by a cap on Tiers 1 and 2; the impact and effectiveness of a 'first come, first served' or a pool system for highly skilled migrants under Tier 1; and of a 'first come, first served', a pool, or an auction, system for skilled migrants under Tier 2; whether and how intra-company transfers should be included in a cap; the implications of merging the Resident Labour Market Test and Shortage Occupation Lists; whether dependents should be included in the cap, and the effect of including them. Overall, the Committee believes a cap would make little difference to immigration unless it was set at virtually zero. There is a risk that a permanent cap could hamper businesses, prevent top-class international professionals from coming to the UK and damage the UK's ability to recruit the most distinguished scientists into universities.

Download or read book Counter terrorism measures in British airports written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-24 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Home Affairs Committee states in a report published today (HCP 311, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780215545060) that the wider introduction of full-body scanners is a welcome development in airport security. It states though that the Government's position of adopting "proportionate" measures is a euphemism for adopting a wholly reactive stance and waiting for terrorists to demonstrate their new capabilities before implementing improved security measures. In view of the ongoing terrorist threat to airline passengers and staff the Committee urge the Government to constantly look for further technological measures to improve airport security. The Committee is satisfied that the privacy concerns that have been expressed in relation to these devices are overstated and that privacy concerns should not prevent the deployment of scanners, but is concerned at the delay in the introduction of other security devices such as hand-held Electronic Trace Detection equipment. The Committee also says that the Government should be wary of relying on one make or model of equipment and where possible conceal the technical specifications of equipment away from the public gaze. Also international standards in aviation security must be made more stringent and more must be done to tackle terrorism at the source. The Committee also raises concerns at the institutional separation of airport security from wider counter-terrorism measures.

Download or read book The national DNA database written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-15 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Vol. 1, see HCP 222-I (ISBN 9780215544605)

Download or read book The Government s approach to crime prevention written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-23 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's Cutting Crime strategy was introduced in 20-07 to re-focus crime prevention activity on areas where progress on crime reduction has been slow, particularly youth crime, more serious offending, anti-social behaviour, reducing re-offending and designing-out crime. To be successful in tackling youth anti-social behaviour and ensuring perpetrators do not progress to more serious offending, enforcement must be coupled with support. A more effective long-term prevention strategy must focus on early intervention with young children and their parents. The Government has made a good start in this area, but needs to go further, ensuring that support reaches the most vulnerable and is available throughout the childhood years. Starting secondary school is a particularly formative time for children; mentoring would help those lacking support at home to manage this transition. Whilst the frequency of re-offending has been reduced there are still groups with very high re-offending rates, particularly young men and those serving short-term custodial sentences. Prisons must do more to ensure that training and employment meets the needs of individual prisoners and the labour market, and to ensure that a higher proportion of individuals benefit from resettlement support. The Government should also place more emphasis on measures to prevent opportunities for crime, including fast progress towards meeting its goal of introducing an early warning system to identify emerging crime trends

Download or read book The Trade in Human Beings written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 318-i-vi, session 2007-08

Download or read book Managing migration written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-31 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Managing Migration

Download or read book Project CONTEST written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the ninth report of the Home Affairs Committee (HCP 212, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780215539731) and examines Project CONTEST, the Government's counter-terrorism strategy. Project CONTEST was first developed in 2003 as a response to the emerging terrorist threat in the aftermath of the attacks in New York and Washington DC, in September 2001. A revised version of CONTEST was published on 24th March 2009. CONTEST has four strands: Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare, and responsibility for CONTEST lies with the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT), part of the Home Office. The Committee commends the dedication and professionalism of the staff and approves of the more open nature in explaining CONTEST to the public. The Committee believes though that the Government could go further by outlining more of the sucesses of the counter-terrorism operations. However, the Transport for London network remains vulnerable to terrorism, as well as the 2012 Olympics, with the Committee seeing a safe and secure Games as a litmus test for the Government's counter-terrorism strategy.

Download or read book Knife crime written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The number of knife homicides increased by over a quarter between 2005/06 and 2006/07 and there also appeared to be a rise in other serious knife violence during this year. A 48 per cent increase in stab-related hospital admissions between 1997/98 and 2006/07 may indicate that knives are being used to inflict more serious wounds. The majority of knife victims and perpetrators are young men in their late teens and early twenties and the high levels of knife violence since 2006 appear to be the result of an increase in street violence between groups of young people who are sometimes referred to as 'gangs'. Knife violence is concentrated in the deprived parts of big cities. Most young people who carry knives say they do so for 'protection'; status and peer pressure are also factors. The Committee is convinced us of the need to target knife-carriers and violent offenders separately. For the former, it advocates education in schools about the realities of knife-carrying and measures to help young people feel safer, such as improving confidence in the police and better victim support, and it supports the use of stop and search, providing it is carried out in an appropriate manner. The use of custody as an appropriate sentence for the majority of knife-carriers and for violent offenders is offset by high re-offending rates that highlight its ineffectiveness as a long-term solution to violent crime. The report advocates the adoption of a long-term violence reduction strategy that focuses on prevention. Specific recommendations include early intervention with babies and toddlers born into dysfunctional families and a more strategic approach to providing diversionary activities and support for excluded young people.