Written question asked by Lord Flight (Conservative) on Tuesday, 21 December 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 12 January 2005. It was answered by Robert Key (Conservative) on Wednesday, 12 January 2005 on behalf of the Information Committee.

Information Select Committee

Question: To ask the Chairman of the Information Committee, what steps have been taken since 16th June to protect honourable Members, peers and their staff against spam e-mails; and if he will make a statement. - Including figures.

Answer: Mr. Flight: To ask the Chairman of the Information Committee what steps have been taken since 16 June to protect hon. Members, peers and their staff against spam e-mails; and if he will make a statement. [206967] Mr. Key: Since June 2004 a new e-mail filtering service has been in operation. This third party service scans all inbound e-mail and blocks those that are found to contain viruses or content known to be Spam. During the first six months of operation 11,439,431 e-mails were scanned. Of these, 4,982,447 (43.55 per cent.) were found to be Spam and 991,491 (8.66 per cent.) to contain viruses. Intended recipients are notified when e-mails have been blocked and can check those judged to be Spam if they wish to do so. Based on customer feedback received to date, the service is working very well.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 206967; 429 c557W;429 c555W
Session: 2004-05
Subjects: Software Email Members Palace of Westminster Parliament Unsolicited goods and services
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk