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16 Nov 2004 : Column 1237W—continued
Civil Servants (Pensions)
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the latest figure is for the average length of pension payout of the civil service direct benefit pension. [197795]
Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave her on 8 November 2004, Official Report, column 515W.
Civil Service Sports Council
Dr. Whitehead: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office under what authority the Civil Service Sports Council operates land belonging to the civil service for sporting purposes. [197854]
Ruth Kelly: The Civil Service Sports Council Ltd, a company registered under the Industrial and Provident Society Acts, encourages and co-ordinates the pursuit of sport and recreation throughout the civil service.
CSSC either owns or leases the sites it operates. Of 37 sports clubs, 21 are owned freehold by CSSC and 16 are leasehold. Five sites are leased from the Ministry of Defence. Rents are paid at a commercial rate.
Departmental Budget
Mr. Allan: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the budget for the (a) Delivery Unit, (b) Office of Public Sector Reform, (c) Charter Mark Unit, (d) Beacon Unit, (e) Media Monitoring Team, (f) Corporate Communications Team and (g) Strategy Unit (i) was for each year since 1997–98, (ii) is for 2004–05 and (iii) will be for 2005–06; and if she will make a statement. [197645]
Ruth Kelly: Resource Budgets for the Delivery Unit, Office of Public Service Reform and the Strategy Unit since their inception are as follows.
| Unit | Delivery unit | Office of public service reform | Strategy unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 1.4 | 1.4 | n/a |
| 2002–03 | 3.8 | 5.4 | 6.3 |
| 2003–04 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 4.8 |
| 2004–05 | 3.9 | 2.3 | 3.7 |
Notes:
1. All figures shown in £ million.
2. The figures for the Office of Public Service Reform (OPSR) from 2002–03 onwards include the budget for the Charter Mark and Beacon Scheme which was merged with OPSR in 2002.
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Budgetary information for the Charter Mark Unit and the Beacon Unit for 2001–02 and or the Corporate Communications Team for the period 2001–02 to 2004–05 is not readily identifiable from the Cabinet Office's accounting system and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) has a nil budget and operates on a cost-recovery basis. The Unit's running costs are recovered in total through contributions from each of the departments and agencies that use MMU's services.
Budgets for 2005–06 will be finalised following completion of the Cabinet Office's business planning round.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the cost of (a) decoration and (b) refurbishment of the London offices of the Department was in each of the last four years. [196140]
Ruth Kelly: Costs of decoration are not held separately from overall maintenance costs and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The costs of refurbishment of London offices of the Cabinet Office are shown in the table.
| £000 | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 15,653,991 |
| 2001–02 | 21,177,067 |
| 2002–03 | 14,255,364 |
| 2003–04 | 3,720,380 |
Figures Include fees, furniture/office equipment and VAT.
E-Government
Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment she has made of access to e-Government services for people living in disadvantaged areas of the UK. [198756]
Ruth Kelly: The Government are committed to providing access to their services in a way that best meets citizens needs and e-Government provides a range of delivery options to complement traditional channels.
The Government realise the internet is a key access technology for e-Government services and have invested in over 6,000 UK online centres which provide free or low cost access particularly in disadvantaged areas.
An assessment of internet availability, across England, found that that 99 per cent. of households are within 10 kilometres of a public internet access point. The full
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results can be found on page eight of the 2003 UK Online report at www.e- government.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/MediaCentre/NewOnSiteArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID =4006060&chk=rlWVHj.
EU Civil Protection Monitoring and Information Centre
Mr. Tynan: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement on the role of the EU Civil Protection Monitoring and Information Centre; how many requests for assistance the UK (a) has made and (b) has responded to; and what UK assets have been made available to the centre's database. [197570]
Ruth Kelly: The Monitoring and Information Centre is a unit within the European Commission's Directorate General for Environment in Brussels. It was set up in 2002 as part of the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism to act as a centre for collecting and distributing information on emergencies; to receive requests for assistance from any country; and to pass the requests on to member states that participate in the Mechanism. The countries participating in the mechanism are the 25 EU member states, the three European Economic Area countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and the two candidate countries (Bulgaria and Romania).
The United Kingdom has not submitted any requests for assistance to the Monitoring and Information Centre. A total of 15 requests for assistance have been sent out by the Monitoring and Information Centre. The UK responded to all of them and in eight cases offered assistance either bi-laterally or through international organisations. Where the UK did not offer help that was either because the UK did not have the specialised resource required (for example, in responding to forest fires) or another country closer to the incident was able to assist.
The UK has offered the following assets to the Monitoring and Information Centre's database (subject to them being available at the time):
Freedom of Information Act
Dr. Julian Lewis:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment she has made of the likely costs to
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her Department in the first quarter of 2005 of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and if she will make a statement. [198766]
Ruth Kelly: The cost of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) will depend on the number and complexity of the requests received. The resources of the Cabinet Office Openness Team have, however, been strengthened to cope with the anticipated demands of the FOIA and contingency arrangements are in place to further augment the team should the need arise. These additional costs are being met from within the existing Cabinet Office resource budget.
Frontline Civil Servants
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement on the methodology used to determine whether civil servants are classified as frontline. [198939]
Ruth Kelly: Frontline staff are usually defined as those who interact directly with the public or other customers for example, in jobcentres or tax offices. There is no centrally agreed civil service methodology to determine whether a post is designated as frontline it is for individual departments and agencies to decide on their own classification to meet their individual business needs.
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