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Electronic Devices

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many electronic devices are owned by the Department, broken down by type. [207680]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

E-mail

Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what plans he has to introduce an automatic e-mail notification facility for announcements and publications issued by his Office and those public bodies reporting to him. [203686]

Mr. Milburn: The Duchy of Lancaster office has no plans to introduce an automatic e-mail notification facility for announcements and publications as it has no public bodies reporting to it.

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many e-mails have been permanently deleted by his Office in each month since July 2004. [208676]

Mr. Miliband: It is not possible to determine the number of e-mails deleted by the Cabinet Office in each month since July 2004. Guidance issued from the Head of the Home Civil Service to all departments in July 2004 provided a clear cross-departmental approach to the handling of e-mail correspondence, and a copy is available in the Libraries of the House.

Stolen Property

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will list the property belonging to his Office that has been (a) stolen and (b) reported lost in each year since 1997, broken down by type of article. [206377]

Mr. Miliband: There have been no recorded cases of stolen property in my Department since 1997.

Details of lost property since 1997 are shown in the table.
Lost Property

		£000
1997–98	No cases	—
1998–99	IT equipment	10,633
1999–2000	Audio visual equipment	1,385
	Communications equipment	370
	Stores items	200
Total		1,955
2000–01	Communications equipment	118
2001–02	No cases	—
2002–03	Office machinery	4,700
	Communications equipment	139
Total		4,839
2003–04	Communications equipment	1,170

 
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Temporary Civil Servants

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what his Department's policy is on the routing of telephone calls intended for temporary civil servants who have left government service. [205453]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 20 December 2004]: The Cabinet Office policy is not to route telephone calls intended for temporary civil servants who have left government service.

Travel Costs

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the total travel costs to her Department have been for (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials for each year since 1997. [203785]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 9 December 2004]: Since 1999, the Government publishes, on an annual basis, the total costs of all ministerial overseas travel and a list of all visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500. Copies of the lists are available in the Library of the House. Details on the costs of Ministers' domestic travel are not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

The travel costs for special advisers who accompany their Ministers overseas are included in the annual list on Overseas Travel by Cabinet Ministers. Other travel costs for special advisers are included in the overall spend on travel by the Cabinet Office, and are not separately identifiable.

The overall amount spent on travel for the Cabinet Office from 1997 to date, is shown in the table.

	£ million
1997–98	680, 730.61
1998–99	1,346,791.19
1999–2000	1,426,056.48
2000–01	1,710,250.17
2001–02	2,028,659.80
2002–03	2,268,693.03
2003–04	1,994,814.40

All official travel in the Department is undertaken strictly in accordance with the rules contained in the Cabinet Office Management Code. All ministerial travel is undertaken fully in accordance with the rules set out in the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House

Volunteering (Fiscal Incentives)

Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the promotion of volunteering through the use of fiscal incentives for (a) individual volunteers and (b) employers. [204906]

Mr. Milburn: The Government are keen to see people get more active in the community and this is why my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister issued a challenge in March 2000 to encourage employers and their employees to give time to voluntary and community activities.
 
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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Community Legal Service

Ross Cranston: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what his most recent estimate is of the amount spent on civil (non-criminal) law by the community legal service, as a percentage of the total expenditure on legal services in the UK economy. [208052]

Mr. Lammy: During 2003–04 expenditure on the community legal service represented an estimated 4.7 per cent. of the legal services market in the UK during the same period.

Corporal Punishment

Mr. Dawson: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether corporal punishment of children has been prohibited by legislation in each of the UK Crown dependencies (a) as a sentence of the courts and as a form of punishment in penal institutions for young offenders, (b) in schools, including private schools, (c) in other institutions and forms of care and (d) by parents in the home. [208163]

Mr. Lammy: Corporal punishment of children may not be imposed by the courts and is prohibited either by legislation or as a matter of policy in penal and care institutions in all the Crown dependencies. The use of corporal punishment by parents in the home is similar to that in England and Wales, in that reasonable chastisement is permitted.

In Jersey, the Education (Jersey) Law 1999 provides that the Education Committee may issue a statement of general principles and guidance. On 10 December 1986, the committee issued guidance that corporal punishment is not to be administered in schools and other institutions. The head teachers of all private schools are required to comply with the Education Committee's guidance as a condition of their registration or grant funding. Therefore all Jersey schools are obliged not to use corporal punishment.

In Guernsey, by a Directive made under the Education (Guernsey) Law, 1970, corporal punishment is not permitted in schools controlled by the Education Department. Private schools in Guernsey are licensed and inspected by the Education Department. They have all discontinued the use of corporal punishment.

In the Isle of Man, the Education Act 2001 (of Tynwald) provides that corporal punishment may not be imposed as penalty on a pupil for misbehaviour in a school provided or maintained by the Department of Education. The Department of Education does not have any power to prohibit corporal punishment in independent schools, however the one such school in the Isle of Man is a member of the Independent Schools Council which has banned the use of corporal punishment and hence it is not used on the island.

Freepost Election Mailings

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the total cost to public funds was of providing freepost mailings
 
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to candidates in the (a) 1997 general election, (b) 2001 general election and (c) 2004 European parliamentary elections. [207951]

Mr. Leslie: The cost to the Consolidated Fund of the delivery of candidates' election communications was as follows:

	Cost to consolidated fund (£)
(a) 1997 general election	20,775,582.64
(b) 2001 general election	17,651,256.19
(c) 2004 European parliamentary elections	25,896,235.82

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