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23 Feb 2004 : Column 28W—continued
Periodicals
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the annual cost of periodicals that (a) his ministerial
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office, (b) other ministerial offices within his Department, (c) non-departmental bodies, (d) executive agencies and (e) his Department have subscribed to since 1997. [146025]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created on 29 May 2002. The total
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expenditure on periodicals, including newspapers, by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the period from formation until 31 March 2003 was £300,072, and for 1 April until 22 December 2003 was £237,371.
| 29 May 2002 to 31 March 2003 | 1 April to 22 December 2002 | |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Ministerial Office | 1,262 | 1,710 |
| (b) Other ministerial offices in ODPM | 7,827 | 5,235 |
| (c) Non-departmental bodies (Rent Assessment Panels only) | 1,609 | 1,431 |
| (d) Executive agencies | No data available | No data available |
| (e) ODPM total | 300,072 | 237,371 |
Information on how much NDPBs and Agencies spend on periodicals is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The exception to this is expenditure by Rent Assessment Panels, which is processed centrally by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Press/Public Relations Officers
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by his Department in each year since 1997. [146026]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created on 29 May 2002. The press office provides a centralised media service on behalf of ODPM(c) . At 1 April 2003, there were 21.8 full time equivalent press officers.
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by the Audit Commission in each year since 1997. [146027]
Yvette Cooper: The information requested is as follows.
(a) The Audit Commission used an external consultancy for Press Officers until October 2001, up to that time the Commission did not directly employ Press officers. The Commission employed Press Officers from the following dates:
- 1 April 2002—6
- 1 April 2003—7
(b) The Audit Commission used an external consultancy for Public Relation officers until 1999. Since then this work has been handled by in-house staff and/or outside consultancies. Since 1999 the role has involved the equivalent of one full-time job. As from February 2004 the Press Officer/Public Relation Officer roles will be combined and will result in a total of seven employees.
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by the Housing Corporation in each year since 1997. [146028]
Yvette Cooper: Since 1999, as at 1 April, the Housing Corporation has employed a Head of Communications and one full-time Communications/Media Officer.
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by English Partnerships in each year since 1997. [146029]
Yvette Cooper: Since 1999–2000, English Partnerships have employed a total of six press officers and no public relations officers. Records for earlier periods are not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by the Standards Board for England in each year since 1997. [146030]
Yvette Cooper: The Standards Board for England was set up in 2001. It currently employs two officers supported by an administrator who provide a service to the press in addition to other general communications duties such as organising events.
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by the Boundary Commission for England in each year since 1997. [146035]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created on 29 May 2002. Since then no press officers or public relation officers have been employed by the Boundary Commission for England.
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by the Boundary Commission for Wales in each year since 1997. [146036]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created on 29 May 2002. Since then no press officers or public relations officers have been employed by the Boundary Commission for Wales.
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by the Residential Property Tribunal Service in each year since 1997. [146037]
Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) press officers and (b) public relations officers were employed by the Valuation Tribunals in each year since 1997. [146038]
Yvette Cooper: The Valuation Tribunals have never employed press or public relation officers.
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Procurement (Outsourcing)
Norman Lamb: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his Department's procurement policy with regard to offshore IT and call centre outsourcing; whether his Department is outsourcing IT and call centre jobs to offshore companies; to which countries his Department has outsourced these jobs; how much his Department has spent on this outsourcing in each of the last two years; and how much has been budgeted for this purpose for the next two years. [147578]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister procures IT in line with Government procurement policy, having due regard to propriety and regularity and the need to comply with the requirements of the EU Treaty, including the principle of non-discrimination, the EC procurement directives and the UK's international obligations.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has two outsourced IT contracts, totalling £10.7 million, neither of which is with an offshore company. Of these, one is a Department for Transport contract providing joint services to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the other is the sole responsibility of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. These contracts were let with:
- LogicaCMG for the provision of the corporate payroll service for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Department for Transport; and
- Fujitsu for the provision of IT infrastructure and desktop services for the Government Office Network.
Protective Suits
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many nuclear, biological, chemical protective suits are available to (a) emergency services and (b) military personnel in the London area. [155036]
Mr. Raynsford: The London Ambulance Service currently has 400 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) suits immediately available for use in response to CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear) incidents. The Service plans to increase the number of suits available to 1,400 during the next financial year.
The London Fire Brigade has 1,500 gas-tight suits immediately available for use in response to CBRN incidents, as well as for day-to-day operations.
The Military in London has approximately 1,000 PPE suits immediately available.
The total number of CBRN trained police officers nationally is now over 5,000. This is in line with the Association of Chief Police Officers' desired level of training to ensure that police forces nationally have the necessary resilience to deal with a CBRN incident. It would not be appropriate, on security grounds, to give more specific information regarding the CBRN response capability in each police force.
The deployment of CBRN-protective equipment to the emergency services and to the Military is not tied to geographical regions and, depending on the nature and scale of any incident, London may receive extra equipment from or supply extra equipment to other regions.
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Regional Assemblies
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how the costs of local government reorganisation would be distributed if an elected regional assembly is established in (a) the North West, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) the North East. [155137]
Mr. Raynsford: It is too early to say what the costs and savings of any reorganisation will be since these will depend ultimately on the pattern of unitary authorities introduced and on the decisions that the new unitary authorities take about how to discharge their functions. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will be discussing how any costs will be funded with local government.
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