Written question asked by Judy Mallaber (Labour) on Monday, 22 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 25 March 2010. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Tuesday, 30 March 2010 on behalf of the Home Office.

Departmental Internet

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanisms he plans to put in place to monitor and ensure compliance with the requirement that any electronic service provider tendering for Government contracts should deploy the list compiled by the Internet Watch Foundation in order to block access to websites known to host images of child sex abuse.

Answer: [holding answer 25 March 2010]: The Home Department's Commercial Directorate has worked with the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to change the conditions under which contracts for internet services to Government Departments or Government Agencies were offered.OGC has recently issued procurement policy which requires all procurement specifications for the provision of internet related services to include a requirement that the service provider must block access to those sites specified on the Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) list.The policy will be circulated to the Home Department's procurement community to promote this policy.The main Home Department contract for IT services uses the IWF list to restrict access to the sites in question. As part of our contract management procedures this will continue to be monitored during the lifetime of the contract.As part of our commercial best practice we will monitor all procurement specifications for the provision of internet related services to ensure compliance with this requirement.

Secondary information