Control orders
We released the following information on 7 January 2010. The FoI reference number is: 13290 The number of people currently subject…
Details
We released the following information on 7 January 2010.
The FoI reference number is: 13290
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The number of people currently subject to control orders.
As of 10 December 2009, the last date covered by the most recent Written Ministerial Statement on control orders (laid before Parliament on 15 December 2009), 12 control orders were in force. -
The number of people currently subject to control orders in receipt of benefits.
As of 10 December 2009, the last date covered by the most recent Written Ministerial Statement on control orders (laid before Parliament on 15 December 2009), 10 individuals were in receipt of benefits. -
The number of Home Office staff currently working on control orders.
10 full time equivalent staff currently work on control orders. -
The amount spent by the Home Office since the commencement of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 on providing individuals subject to control orders with telephone line rental and phone-cards, including VAT.
The Home Office spent £7856.44 including VAT on telephone line rental for individuals subject to control orders between April 2006 and October 2009. We are unable to provide you with the total amount spent on phone cards for this period as this information forms part of the total amount spent on the provision of accommodation for individuals subject to control orders and cannot be extracted from this figure. However as phone cards have only been issued infrequently, and not at all since 2007, this figure is assessed to be small.
We have endeavoured to answer your request as fully as possible. However, in relation to one aspect of your request, namely the cost of telephone line rental in the financial year 2005-2006, we hold the information that you have requested in relation to costs to the Home Office but have estimated that the cost of answering this element would exceed £600 and we are therefore unable to comply with it. Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the Home Office is not obliged to comply with a request for information where it estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’, which is currently £600 (see the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004). The £600 limit applies to all central government departments and is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 3½ days work per request. In estimating the costs of your request, we have taken account only of the costs of locating, retrieving or extracting the information (in accordance with regulation 4 of those Regulations).
The cost limit is exceeded in relation to supplying you the cost of providing individuals subject to control orders with telephone line rental in the financial year 2005-2006 because during that financial year control order costs were charged to a cost centre which was also used for the costs of a number of different programmes. Therefore it would be necessary to look at the records of every transaction made to the cost centre to establish which costs relate to control orders and which costs relate to other programmes. From the financial year 2006-2007 onwards a separate cost centre was used for control order costs.
In relation to the total cost of control orders to the Home Office in the financial years 2006/2007 and 2008/2009, we would like to take this opportunity to rectify minor errors in previous information released. In 2006/2007 the total cost of control orders to the Home Office was £1,940,300 (rather than £1,938,200). In 2008/2009 the total cost of control orders to the Home Office was £2,707,600 (rather than £2,707,200).