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Civil Service Bill

20. Richard Ottaway: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when his Department expects to publish a draft civil service Bill. [40139]

Mr. Leslie: I refer the hon. Member to my earlier answer given to the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), Official Report, column .

Child Care Services

21. Caroline Flint: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the contribution of regional Government offices to the development of child care services as part of social and economic regeneration. [40140]

Mrs. Roche: This Government recognise that child care programmes can make an important contribution to social and economic regeneration. The Government offices for the regions are helping to improve the delivery of front-line services, for example sure start and other child care and nursery initiatives, by making effective connections between such programmes and the other programmes that they support.

Poverty

22. Paul Goggins: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what action he is taking to reduce poverty in the north-west. [40141]

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Mrs. Roche: In the north-west, around 230,000 people have gained from the national minimum wage; the working families tax credit makes work pay for nearly 180,000 families. The minimum income guarantee ensures single pensioners will receive £100 a week by 2003 and more than 1.4 million pensioners have seen the biggest rise in basic state pension for a generation.

Following the Social Exclusion Unit's reports, local partnerships are harnessing the power of all the sectors to tackle the problems of deprived neighbourhoods supported by new minimum standards for mainstream services.

The Government Offices for the Regions administer programmes to tackle deprivation and poverty. For example, the north-west receives £243 million through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

23. Linda Gilroy: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the role of his Department is in tackling urban poverty. [40144]

Mrs. Roche: The National Strategy for neighbourhood renewal action plan was published by the Social Exclusion Unit in 2001. Its goal is to ensure that no one is seriously disadvantaged by where they live within 10–20 years and to narrow the gap between the most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest. Many of the most deprived neighbourhoods are in urban areas.

The strategy addresses the wider causes of poverty and social exclusion with targets to improve employment levels, educational attainment, health and housing and to reduce crime in the most deprived neighbourhoods. This is backed up by substantial investment. The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, based in Department for Transport Local Government and the Regions, is responsible for taking this forward. The Government Offices for the Regions work with the NRU and other Departments to administer specific programmes like the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

The SEU continues to work with all Government departments to ensure that social exclusion issues are addressed.

Departmental Staff

Mr. Chope: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many staff left the service of his Department and its agencies in the year ended 31 March 2001; how many left before attaining the formal retirement age of 60 years; and in respect of how many his Department and its agencies assumed responsibilities for making payments until retirement age. [37557]

Mr. Leslie: Figures for (a) and (b) are in the table, copies of which have been placed in the Library of the House.

The figures show the number of permanent staff in each Department reported to the Mandate database from 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001.

They are also based on the Departments as they were before structural changes were made after the election in 2001.

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For part (c) in the year ended 31 March 2001 the Cabinet Office and its agencies assumed responsibility for making payments until retirement age (60) for 13 of these staff.

Civil Servants

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will set out for each civil service grade within his (a) Department and (b) Department's executive agencies the (i) total number of staff employed, (ii) number aged (A) 16 to 25, (B) 26 to 35, (C) 36 to 45, (D) 46 to 60 and (E) over the age of 60 years, (iii) number of registered disabled and (iv) number of ethnic minorities. [39152]

Mr. Leslie: The figures are in tables and represent the data reported to the Mandate database and supplied in manual returns as at 1 October 2001, copies of which have been placed in the Library of the House. Mandate is a central computer based record of information for almost all civil servants in the home civil service. For some Departments and agencies, summary figures are provided in a manual return, which may not always be fully consistent with Mandate information, for example, because of minor differences in timing. Breakdowns by age are purely figures reported to Mandate. Departments and agencies are responsible for their own grading structures, but these have been allocated to broad responsibility levels to give a common basis for tabulation.

Figures are on a head count basis, for the number of permanent staff in each Department. The figures are based on the Departments following the structural changes made as a result of the 2001 election. Figures for total staff in each Department are rounded to the nearest 10 and figures by grade level are suppressed if less than five.

Advertising

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the expenditure was per campaign for the five most expensive media advertising campaigns his Department undertook in the past five parliamentary Sessions including the current parliamentary Session in (a) Scotland, (b) England, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland; and for the last two parliamentary Sessions and the current Session, when each advertising campaign (i) began and (ii) ended in (A) Scotland, (B) England, (C) Wales and (D) Northern Ireland. [37392]

Mr. Leslie: Expenditure on media advertising campaigns by parliamentary Session and country is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the cost was of media advertising in each of the past five parliamentary Sessions including the current Session, for his Department in (a) England, (b) Wales and (c) Northern Ireland; and for the last two parliamentary Sessions and the current parliamentary Session, what the media advertising expenditure was per month in (i) England, (ii) Wales and (iii) Northern Ireland. [37405]

Mr. Leslie: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 12 December 2001, Official Report, column 939W.

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Expenditure per month is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

WALES

Comprehensive Spending Review

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has received in the last 12 months from the National Assembly for Wales regarding the Comprehensive Spending Review. [43225]

Mr. Paul Murphy: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 24 January 2002, Official Report, column 1004W.

Departmental Publications

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many (a) press releases, (b) guidance notes and (c) publications his Department issued in each month since July 1999. [43227]

Mr. Paul Murphy: The information is as follows:

Press releases issued

	1999	2000	2001	2002
January	n/a	5	5	11
February	n/a	5	5	9
March	n/a	13	12	—
April	n/a	9	8	—
May	n/a	10	3	—
June	n/a	10	6	—
July	0	12	6	—
August	1	5	3	—
September	7	6	9	—
October	8	10	8	—
November	4	8	15	—
December	10	7	6	—

Note:

The figures for press releases do not include operational notes.

The Wales Office has issued four publications— in February, May, November 2000 and April 2001 respectively.

The Wales Office does not issue guidance notes.

Secretary of State's Office

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the job title of each member of staff in the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales. [43230]

Mr. Paul Murphy: I refer the hon. Member to figure seven on page 17 of the Departmental Report 2001 (Cm 5121) which is available in the Library.

Public Service Agreements

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the Public Service Agreement targets which have been revised and those which have been introduced since the publication of the 2001 departmental report. [43254]

Mr. Paul Murphy: My Department does not have a Public Service Agreement.

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