Written question asked by Peter Kilfoyle (Labour) on Tuesday, 1 May 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 11 May 2001. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Friday, 11 May 2001 on behalf of the Treasury.

Treasury

Question: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when guidelines on the handling of informants were last revised; and what factors underlay the changes made; how much has been paid in total to informants in each of the last 10 years; and if he will list the number of payments made to informants within the ranges (a) £1,000-£9,000, (b) £10,000-£49,000, (c) £50,000-£99,000 and (d) £100,000 and over.

Answer: Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) when guidelines on the handling of informants were last revised; and what factors underlay the changes made; [160387] (2) how much has been paid in total to informants in each of the last 10 years; and if he will list the number of payments made to informants within the ranges (a) £1,000-£9,000, (b) £10,000-£49,000, (c) £50,000-£99,000 and (d) £100,000 and over. [160371] Dawn Primarolo: The guidelines for handling informants were last revised in October 2000 as a result of the Human Rights Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. It is not Customs' policy to disclose information about the amounts paid to informants on the ground that this could undermine the effectiveness of law enforcement.

Secondary information