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9 Dec 2004 : Column 667W—continued
Departmental Files
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether it is the policy of the Department to retain for the benefit of future (a) historians and (b) applicants under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the same (i) complete categories of files, (ii) numbers of files and (iii) representative examples of files from categories of files destroyed as had been preserved prior to the passage of that Act. [203340]
Mr. Caborn: There has been no change to Departmental Records Management policy since the passage of the Act and categories of files and their numbering system will continue. It has never been the policy of the Department to retain representative examples from files of categories destroyed.
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many departmental files have been destroyed in each of the past five years. [203341]
Mr. Caborn: The table sets out the number of files that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have destroyed in the past five years
| Number of files | |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 5,168 |
| 2001 | 3,147 |
| 2002 | 4,996 |
| 2003 | 4,363 |
| 2004 | 4,097 |
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what changes have been promulgated in each of the past five years to the guidelines or other criteria for the retention or destruction of departmental files. [203342]
Mr. Caborn:
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not changed its policy regarding retention and destruction of Departmental files over the last five years.
9 Dec 2004 : Column 668W
English Heritage
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what effect the Treasury's requirement for efficiency savings at English Heritage will have on that body's work in the next three years. [203117]
Mr. Caborn: As a result of its efficiency programme, English Heritage will save up to £14.2 million over the next three years. This will be invested in front line services.
External Consultants
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the total cost to her Department was for the use of external consultants in each of the last two years. [202346]
Mr. Caborn: The total cost to the Department of using external consultants was £469,480.60 in 2002–03 and £473,785.35 in 2003–04.
Free Television Licences
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many pensioners aged over 75 years living in (a) North Southwark and Bermondsey constituency and (b) the London borough of Southwark are (i) entitled to a free television licence and (ii) receiving a free television licence. [203396]
Estelle Morris [holding answer 8 December 2004]: TV Licensing, who administer free television licences for people aged 75 or over as agents for the BBC, are not able to provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. It is not therefore possible to estimate take-up of the concession on a local basis. However, the number of households with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment in the North Southwark and Bermondsey constituency in 2003–04 was 3,995, according to Department for Work and Pensions records. The number of such households in the London borough of Southwark was 8,930.
Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will estimate the cost of exempting student-only houses from paying the television licence fee. [202567]
Estelle Morris: It is not possible to estimate the cost of providing television licence fee concessions for all student-only households, because TV licensing's records do not distinguish between student and other households and information on student numbers is not held in such a way as to enable the number of student-only households to be calculated.
Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the cost is to the Exchequer of the free television licence for those over 75 years; and what would be the cost of offering a free television licence to all those in receipt of pension credit only. [202944]
9 Dec 2004 : Column 669W
Estelle Morris: The cost of providing free television licences to people aged 75 or over in 2003–04 was £408 million. The cost of providing free television licences to all households in receipt of pension credit would be in the region of £310 million a year.
Invoice Payments
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the average length of time was between the date of invoices issued to her Department from a supplier and payment by the Department of the invoice in the last 12 months for which figures are available; what percentage of these invoices were paid within 30 days of the date of issue of the invoice; what percentage of these invoices remained unpaid after 90 days; and if she will make a statement on the Department's policy on the payment of invoices issued to it. [200615]
Mr. Caborn: In compliance with Government guidance, DCMS is committed to the payment of all invoices within agreed contractual provision or within 30 days of presentation of a valid invoice. The current target for payment of invoices is that 100 per cent. of invoices are paid in time, including disputed invoices once disputes have been settled.
For the period November 2003 to October 2004, the Department paid 99.3 per cent. of valid invoices on time, the average number of days between receipt of invoices and payment being 10.2. Information regarding average length time between the date of invoices from suppliers and payment by the Department is not held on the Department's accounting system and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Two invoices (0.03 per cent.) were paid after 90 days.
Olympic/Paralympic Athletes
Jim Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans her Department has for funding (a) Olympic and (b) Paralympic athletes up to 2008. [202740]
Mr. Caborn: We plan to at least maintain the previous level of investment for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic cycle. This will result in approximately £98 million being available to support summer and winter Olympians and Paralympians.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many written questions for her Department were unanswered when Parliament prorogued; and how many of the unanswered questions were tabled in each of the previous months of the 2003–04 session. [201546]
Mr. Caborn: All written questions tabled to DCMS received a reply in the 2003–04 parliamentary session.
Seven written questions received the following answer on the final day of the session:
"It has not proved possible to respond to my (right) hon. Friend/the (right) hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation."
Six of these questions were tabled between 2–16 November, and the other was tabled on 28 October.
At all times DCMS Ministers make every effort to answer written questions substantively before Prorogation. However, this is not always possible. Where right hon. and hon. Members did not receive a substantive response it is open to them to re-table their question this session.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what target her Department sets for the maximum acceptable time to respond in full to a parliamentary question; and what percentage of answers given by her Department failed to meet this target in each parliamentary session from 1997–98 to 2003–04. [202555]
Mr. Caborn: DCMS aims to ensure that Members receive a substantive response to their Named Day question on the named day and endeavour to answer ordinary written questions within a working week of being tabled. Unfortunately, this is not always possible but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport makes every effort to achieve these timescales.
The percentage of answers that failed to meet these targets in each parliamentary session from 1997–98 to 2003–04 is in the table.
| Parliamentary session | Ordinary Written | Named Day |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | (12)— | (12)— |
| 1998–99 | 54.8 | 62.9 |
| 1999–2000 | 47.0 | 69.0 |
| 2000–01 | 39.1 | 51.5 |
| 2001–02 | 46.3 | 55.2 |
| 2002–03 | 47.5 | 44.5 |
| 2003–04 | 32.3 | 30.5 |
(12) Figures for parliamentary session 1997–98 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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