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17 Nov 2005 : Column 1402W—continued
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
British Olympic Association
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the evidence from the Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on 1 November, which voting members of the British Olympic Association were contacted by UK Sport; who the UK Sport representative was; and what the outcome was. [29505]
Mr. Caborn: I can confirm that neither the Chair nor any other representative of UK Sport initiated any contact with any voting member of the BOA regarding the election of the new Chair.
Consultants
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps the Department takes to ensure that consultancies do not claim excessive expenses while working for the Department and its agencies. [29098]
Mr. Lammy: When undertaking a procurement exercise to engage a consultant or a consultancy firm, DCMS includes within its Invitation to Tender documentation tendering instructions and a Travel and Subsistence Appendix. The instructions specifically ask the tenderers to provide a fixed price and to include all other expenses, the appendix sets out the Department's travel and subsistence rates which we insist consultants abide by. Travel within the London area is expected to be covered within the fixed price of the contract's value.
Martin Horwood:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will list departmental projects conducted by consultants in each year since
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2000; what the cost was in each case; and what the total cost of employing consultants was in each year. [29099]
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Mr. Lammy: The projects undertaken by consultants in each of the years are as follows:
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Outside legal firms employed by DCMS have not been included in the list.
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what mechanisms are in place to assess the effectiveness of consultant-led projects in her Department; what sanctions are available to penalise consultants who run unsuccessful projects; how many projects conducted by consultants were assessed as unsuccessful in each year since 2000; and what sanctions were imposed. [29116]
Mr. Lammy: My Department now operates a system in which all contracts over £10,000 in value are subject to an evaluation and report by the contract managers on the performance of the work.
All DMCS consultancy projects are carried out under either the Department's own terms and conditions or those of the Office of Government Commerce's (Buying Solutions) Services Catalogue (S-Cat).
This allows two courses of action to be taken should a project become unsuccessful:
Terminate the contract without notice and withhold payment of any work that is not carried out successfully.
Arrange for the project to be carried out by alternative means and recover from the consultant the cost of obtaining the alternative service.
There have been no circumstances since 2000 when DCMS has been required to invoke any damage or break clauses under either procurement route.
Correspondence
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she expects Ofcom to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole dated 26 May, passed to Ofcom by her Department. [27721]
Tessa Jowell [holding answer 11 November 2005]: The hon. Member's letter was replied to on 14 June 2005 by the Office of Communications (Ofcom).
Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she will reply to the letter dated 1 September from the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood, ref CMS 22294/DC. [28888]
James Purnell: I wrote to my right hon. Friend for Birmingham, Ladywood on 11 November 2005.
Digital Switchover
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what is her latest estimate of the date by which households across Pendle constituency will be able to receive digital terrestrial broadcasts. [28282]
James Purnell:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has confirmed the regional timetable for digital switchover; it will take place between 2008 and 2012 by ITV region in the following order:
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| Region | |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Border |
| 2009 | West Country, HTV Wales, Granada |
| 2010 | HTV West, Grampian, Scottish Television |
| 2011 | Yorkshire, Anglia, Central |
| 2012 | Meridian, Carlton/LWT (London), Tyne Tees, Ulster |
Note:
Further details can be found at www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk
Digital Switchover will enable coverage for Digital Terrestrial Television to reach the same level as that of the current analogue signals. It will take place in Pendle (Granada region) in 2009.
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