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10 Oct 2005 : Column 244W—continued
Child Protection Services
Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the governance arrangements are for child protection services between trusts, boards and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland. [16599]
Mr. Woodward: The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety provides legislation, policy and procedural guidance to enable Boards and Trusts to safeguard children and promote their welfare. The Department is responsible for ensuring that Boards and Trusts have established satisfactory arrangements for the discharge of all child protection functions under the Children (NI) Order 1995 and other relevant legislation and guidance. The Department ensures this through a range of accountability, reporting and monitoring mechanisms.
Boards are responsible for planning to meet child protection needs within their areas through the Children's Services Planning process and for commissioning from Trusts the full range of child protection services. Each Board has an Area Child Protection Committee overseeing child protection arrangements throughout the Board area. Each Board is responsible for ensuring that Trusts have proper arrangements in place to fulfil all relevant child protection functions under the Children Order, which the Board has delegated to them. Boards have the authority to monitor, evaluate and inspect services directly and to require Trusts to provide them with information on any matter related to the discharge of relevant child protection functions.
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Trusts are responsible in law for the discharge of all relevant child protection functions delegated to them by Boards. They are accountable to Boards and through them to the Department for ensuring that child protection services are provided in accordance with the arrangements set out in the Boards' Schemes for Delegation of Statutory Functions and to any standards prescribed under the authority of the Schemes.
Computer Crime
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many cases of computer (a) hacking, (b) fraud and (c) theft his Department recorded in each year since 2001–02; and for each year, on how many occasions computer systems have been illegally accessed by computer hackers (i) within and (ii)outside his Department. [7189]
Angela E. Smith: The following number of cases have been recorded in the 11 Departments of the Northern Ireland administration and their agencies and the Northern Ireland Office for the three years ending 31 March 2004:
Figures for 2004–05 are currently being finalised and details will be provided as soon as they are available.
Consultants
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the (a) names and (b) numbers of management consultants employed by his Department in each of the last three years. [14240]
Angela E. Smith: I have placed in the Library, information on the names and numbers of management consultants employed by the 11 Departments of the Northern Ireland administration and the Northern Ireland Office excluding agencies and non-departmental bodies in each of the last three years.
Contractors
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the contractors based in other EU member states that are providing services to his Department. [15448]
Angela E. Smith:
Information on contractors based in other EU member states that are providing services to Northern Ireland Departments is not held centrally and could be obtained only from individual Departments at disproportionate cost. However, the annual statutory EU Statistical Survey on the award of public sector contracts shows that the following contractors from
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other EU member states were awarded EU regulated contracts by Northern Ireland Departments during the period 1 January 2004 to 31 March 2005:
Councils (Employees/Assets)
Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time people are employed in each of the 26 councils within Northern Ireland. [15189]
Angela E. Smith: The most up-to-date record of district council staff numbers is set out in the following table.
(73)Part-time denotes anyone working fewer than 30 hours per week, including job sharers.
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the (a) estimated cost and (b) insurance value of the assets held by each district council in Northern Ireland are. [14507]
Angela E. Smith:
The estimated cost or insurance value of individual district councils' assets are not held by the Department of the Environment. However, councils' assets are professionally valued every five years and the most up-to-date figures available, which have been extracted from councils' 2003–04 accounts, are reflected in the following table.
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Departmental Land
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what land his Department (a) is offering for sale, lease-back or similar disposal and (b) plans to offer in the next 12 months; and what the (i)location, (ii) size and (iii) best estimate of value is in each case. [14529]
Angela E. Smith: : It is not possible to provide the information requested in respect of the next 12 calendar months. However, as departmental property strategies are closely aligned with overall financial planning, details of the land proposed for disposal by the Northern Ireland Office, the eleven Departments of the Northern Ireland Administration and their agencies during the current financial year are given in the following table:
(74)Nominal.
Notes:
1.Where £1 nominal is quoted, the circumstances are typically that the ongoing management costs of or obligation of ownership extinguish any value.
2.Some properties have yet to be valued and the entries for these are marked as n/k (not known).
3.Estimates of value are necessarily provisional in nature. They will be subject to ongoing review so that any changes in circumstances, for instance to planning approvals, can be taken into account prior to disposal.
4.Departments are obliged to keep their property holdings under continual review. Therefore, although the list of properties for disposal is accurate as regards current plans, it may be subject to future amendment.
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