Written question asked by Oliver Heald (Conservative) on Monday, 30 November 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 December 2009. It was answered by Phil Woolas (Labour) on Tuesday, 15 December 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Departmental Security

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many security passes his Department has issued to contractors providing consultancy services in the last 12 months.

Answer: It is not possible to provide detailed figures for security passes issued by the Home Office to contractors providing consultancy services over the past 12 months for the following reasons:"The security pass database is regularly refreshed and details of expired passes issued are not retained.""Application forms and pass records for contractors passes do not differentiate between the type of contractor and it is not therefore possible to distinguish from records which of those contractors were providing consultancy services and those that were delivering non-consultancy services (e.g. catering)."

Secondary information