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11 Jan 2005 : Column 436W—continued
Departmental Costs
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of refurbishments in his Department was in each year since 1997; and what the planned expenditure is for 2005–06. [205679]
Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) on 15 November 2004, Official Report, column 950W, and 6 February 2002, Official Report, column 954W.
Departmental Files
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 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. [203321]
Departmental Staff
Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many of the staff employed by his Department have a declared disability. [205775]
Mr. Timms:
The Cabinet Office collects and publishes annually statistical information on the civil service by Department. These include data on the number who have declared a disability.
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The latest available information at April 2004 is available in the Library and on the civil service website at the following address:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management_information/statistical_information/statistics/publications/xls/disability_apr04_4nov04.xls.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many women there are in senior positions in his Department. [205776]
Mr. Timms: The Cabinet Office collects and publishes annually statistical information on the civil service by Department. These include data on the number of women in senior positions in Departments.
The latest available information at April 2004 is available in the Library and on the civil service website at the following address:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management_information/statistical_information/statistics/publications/xls/gender_apr04_4nov04.xls.
Divorce
Mrs. May: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many divorces there were in (a) 2001, (b) 2002 and (c) 2003. [207464]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell to Mrs. Theresa May, dated 11 January 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning the number of divorces taking place in 2001, 2002 and 2003. (HMT Ref 207464). I am replying in his absence.
The number of divorces taking place in each of these years 2001, 2002 and 2003 in the United Kingdom is shown below.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 156,814 |
| 2002 | 160,726 |
| 2003 | 166,737 |
Documents
Sue Doughty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his Department's policy is in relation to the storage of documents and the use of shredders; and whether this policy has been reviewed in the past 12 months. [206759]
Mr. Timms: HM Treasury continues to implement well established policies and procedures for the review and disposal of files in accordance with its administrative needs and the Public Records Act. These policies and procedures have not been changed in the past 12 months.
Dormant Accounts
Mr. Martyn Jones:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress he has made in his negotiations with banks and building societies in
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persuading them to use dormant accounts which cannot be reunited with their owners for the support of good causes. [207272]
Mr. Timms: As stated in the Pre Budget Report (Cm 6408), HM Treasury is holding a series of discussions with the financial services industry to take work on unclaimed assets forward. A report on progress will be made in due course.
Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on his negotiations with banks and building societies regarding the identification and return of (a) dormant and (b) orphan bank accounts; and if he will make a statement. [207273]
Mr. Timms: As stated in the recent pre-Budget report (CM 6408),
"we believe that it is right in principle that more should be done to reunite assets with their owners and [we] welcome the continued efforts of the British Bankers' Association, the Building Societies' Association and National Savings in trying to do so. Where assets and owners cannot be reunited, the assets should be reinvested in society, as long as the original owners' entitlements to reclaim are preserved. The Government asked the industry to expand the scope of action beyond investment banking into retail banking and the wider financial sector. Following the Budget [we have] held constructive discussions with the industry to take this forward and we will report on progress in due course".
Electronic Devices
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many electronic devices are owned by the Department, broken down by type; [207682]
(2) how many items of electrical equipment were used by his Department in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by (a) cost and (b) number of each type of item. [205738]
Mr. Timms: The Treasury owns a wide variety of electronic devices. Items with a value greater than £5,000 are capitalised on acquisition and their values are included in the department's balance sheet in the annual resource accounts. For financial control purposes, certain other items which are a theft risk, such as laptop computers and personal organisers, are recorded by the teams holding the assets, but not capitalised on the balance sheet unless individual values exceed £5,000. There is no central complete record of all electronic devices and one could be assembled only at disproportionate cost.
E-mails
Sue Doughty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department's policy is in relation to the storage and deletion of e-mails; and whether this policy has been reviewed in the past 12 months. [206758]
Mr. Timms:
E-mail messages that form part of the official record are saved for as long as business needs require and stored corporately in accordance with departmental record management procedures. This policy has not been reviewed in the last 12 months. Further e-mail guidance is available on the National Archives website at
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Michael Fabricant: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on his Department's policy regarding the retention of e-mails in electronic form (a) after and (b) up to 1 January 2005; and what instructions have been given regarding the deletion of e-mails prior to 1 January 2005. [206948]
Mr. Timms: E-mail messages that form part of the official record are saved for as long as business needs require and stored corporately in accordance with departmental record management procedures. This applies to e-mails both (a) after and (b) up to 1 January 2005. No separate instructions have been given for the deletion of e-mails prior to 1 January 2005.
Employment (Dagenham)
Jon Cruddas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in each ward of the Dagenham constituency are (a) employed and (b) unemployed. [207155]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Jon Cruddas, dated 11 January 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in each ward of the Dagenham constituency are (a) employed and (b) unemployed. (207155). I am replying in his absence.
Labour Force Survey estimates for 2004 are not available at ward level. I have therefore provided figures taken from the 2001 Census.
The data is provided is based upon the ward boundaries legally in force on 31 December 2002. These are not always completely coterminous with the parliamentary constituency boundaries which were defined in April 1994. A number of the wards listed below are split between two parliamentary constituencies and therefore the data for whole wards are provided on a 'best fit' basis only. Those wards which straddle parliamentary constituencies have been highlighted, and the total number of people living in Output Areas (OA's) within that ward and within another parliamentary constituency has been provided for information. For the count of that portion of the ward within the Dagenham constituency the user is advised to subtract the counts reported for the collection of OA's outside Dagenham Constituency from the ward total.
Source:
Table KS09 Census 2001 Key Statistics for Output Areas and Table UV29 on the Census Area Statistics for Output Areas. Both are available in the House of Commons Library
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