Police: Mobile phone payments...

Millions of pounds a year of taxpayer's money are paid by police to mobile phone companies in the course of criminal investigations. Using Freedom of Information legislation, we investigate the situation...

Mobile phone companies have charged massive sums...

In 2007, police forces in the UK paid over �8.5m to mobile phone companies for information to help solve crimes.

There are 65 million active mobile phones in the UK (more than country's population) each with a unique number - making mobile use like a digital fingerprint.

Police increasingly rely on information such as when, where and to whom a call was made, or text being sent, to solve cases.

Sir Chris Fox, former president of Association of Chief Police Officers, Acpo, says: "The police use this type of information in every sort of inquiry, whether it be the missing person, or the drugs network or the gang violence outside of a club, the accident on a motorway where it may have been caused by someone actually using a mobile phone, or indeed at the top of the tree a terrorist attack, or the preparation for a terrorist attack."

Such information is provided on request by mobile companies.

Taxpayer's bill

So maybe the mobile phone companies should consider this their quid pro quo Tom Brake MP

But under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the companies are allowed to claim the cost of the research back, and charge the police, local authorities or government agencies.

Coming from public budgets, taxpayers are ultimately footing the bill.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman, Tom Brake MP, who sits on the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, says: "Clearly people will be shocked to find out that �8.5 has been spent by police forces around the country to obtain data they need from the mobile phone companies.

"What the mobile phone companies may want to consider is that the police have spent an awful lot of their time in recent years trying to sort out crime that's linked to mobile phones because the mobile phone companies didn't implement the very straightforward measures they could have done to switch mobile phones off when they'd been stolen.

"So maybe the mobile phone companies should consider this their quid pro quo."

FOI request...

Freedom of Information...

The Politics Show has used Freedom of Information requests to find figures for 49 of the 52 regional police forces who, in total, spent �8.6m in the 2007/2008 financial year.

Twenty five forces spent over �100,000 and four spent over �500,000.

The Metropolitan Police Force was the largest, spending �1.4 million.

There is no standard fee for a search, and whilst it can be waived (and sometimes is) forces tend to be billed on a case by case basis.

Should it be free?

Davis: 'This sort of material should be provided free'

The UK mobile market is worth �15bn annually to the companies involved but they do not feel that charging public bodies is in any way wrong, saying that it would be unfair to pass on such costs to their customers.

On the Politics Show on 7 December, Former Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said: "Companies should have a sense of civic responsibility, and in my view, that means this sort of material should be provided free."

Jack Wraith from the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum, which advises mobile companies on this area explains: "We are required by that legislation to put into place communications experts in order to service the requests from the listed authorities as a matter of routine.

"And as a result, those people have got to be trained, they are auditable, they are answerable to the Interceptions Commissioner and if they make mistakes they are answerable by law.

Many crimes have been solved through mobile phone connections

"So all of these aspects require funding."

Given the crucial role in such important cases as Ian Huntley's conviction for the Soham murders, Steve Wright's for the Cambridge prostitute murders, and leads followed after the London bombings on 7/7, there is an argument that in the public interest, the data should be provided to police for no charge.

You can see from the table we have included what your force spent in the last financial year on mobile phone data.

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