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16 Jan 2006 : Column 914W—continued
Parliamentary Book Shop
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission whether it is possible for members of the public to order non-parliamentary publications from the Parliamentary Book Shop; and if he will make a statement. [41765]
Nick Harvey:
Non-parliamentary publications published by the official publisher, The Stationery Office Limited, are available for sale from the Parliamentary Bookshop, or can be ordered if not in stock. But those documents classified as non-parliamentary publications which are items available free of charge from originating Government Departments and agencies or solely via download from their websites are not sold in the Parliamentary Bookshop.
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Parliamentary Information Management System
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission if he will make a statement on the progress of the Parliamentary Information Management System project. [41734]
Nick Harvey: The PIMS project's aims were to provide easy access to parliamentary information for all users of the parliamentary intranet, by creating a new infrastructure for the storage, search, retrieval and management of parliamentary information held in the two Libraries. This would replace and extend the POLIS databases that had been used by the two Libraries for over 20 years, and provide a platform on which the services available to Members of both Houses of Parliament and the public might be developed further.
The first services went live in December 2004 supporting Commons Library inquiry handling. The main services came on stream in April 2005 with facilities for search and retrieval of material and content management. There were some initial difficulties with maintaining the currency of information in the system, and a programme of technical changes designed to improve performance was put in place and completed in November 2005. Further enhancements are to be made over the next few months before the project concludes in the spring of 2006.
A separate project is also under way to develop the parliamentary intranet building on the PIMS technology infrastructure. In addition, a business case is being prepared for a radical redesign of the Parliament website.
Postage Costs
Sarah Teather: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how many hon. Members have had to pay back postage costs to the House in each of the last five years. [41161]
Nick Harvey: It is not possible to separate the figures for postage and stationery, as repayments may cover both. The number of Members repaying the House, either on their own initiative or following a request from the House authorities, for the use of either stationery or postage in each of the past four years for which there are reliable records is as follows;
| Number of Members | |
|---|---|
| 2002 | 29 |
| 2003 | 30 |
| 2004 | 34 |
| 2005 | 34 |
Strategic Plan
Mr. Amess:
To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission (1) when the Strategic Plan for the House of Commons Administration was last updated; and if he will make a statement; [41735]
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(2) if he will make a statement on the progress of each of the four core tasks set out on page 61 of HC 65; whatdiscussions he has had with stakeholders about implementation of each of the four core tasks; and if he will make a statement; [41763]
(3) what discussions he has had with stakeholders about implementation of Objective (a) 1, (b) 2 and (c) 3 in the Corporate Business Plan; and if he will make a statement. [41767]
Nick Harvey: A new outline Strategic Plan, covering the period 2006 to 2011 was agreed by the Commission in July 2005. The text is available via the Commission's intranet and internet pages. This new plan confirms that the primary purpose of the House Service is to enable the House and its Members to perform their parliamentary duties effectively. Beyond this it has a duty to promote public understanding of Parliament's work and role through the provision of information and access. The plan also sets out six priority areas for the period 2006 to 2011: accommodation and works, human resources, information for the public, information management and ICT, planning and management and security. For each of these areas the board of management has developed a detailed statement of its aims for the planning period. These have been incorporated in the 2006 Corporate Business Plan.
The previous strategic plan identified four on-going core tasks and eight developmental objectives for the period covered by the plan: 2001–02 to 2005–06. Pages 15–48 of the 2004–05 Commission Annual Report [HC65 2005–06] provide a description of performance against each of the core tasks. A further statement on performance will be provided in the 2005–06 Annual Report. The views of Members and other stakeholders on the implementation of elements of both the core tasks and the development objectives have been expressed in a number of ways, including reports and advice from the Administration Committee and its predecessors in the last Parliament and the Modernisation Committee, and the 2003 Survey of Services. It is anticipated that a further survey of services will be conducted during the current Parliament.
Furthermore, there have been three hour debates in Westminster Hall on each of the two most recent annual reports, in December 2004 and November 2005, and the Commission hopes that this pattern of annual debate will continue.
Vote Bundle
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for NorthDevon, representing the House of Commons Commission how (a) members of the public and (b) public libraries may purchase the vote bundle; and if he will make a statement. [41764]
Nick Harvey:
Members of the public and public libraries may purchase the vote bundle from the official distributor of parliamentary and Government publications, The Stationery Office Ltd., or from the Parliamentary Bookshop. Public libraries qualify for a subsidy on their purchases under the Government's public library access scheme.
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Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the retail cost of the vote bundle is per printed page; and what the retail cost per page was in (a) 1997, (b) 2001 and (c) 2004. [41768]
Nick Harvey: The current retail cost of the vote bundle per printed page is 18p and has been held at that price since before 1997.
DEFENCE
Afghanistan
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his plans for the deployment of additional British troops to Afghanistan. [38663]
Mr. Ingram: I refer the hon. Member to the statement I made on 14 November 2005, Official Report, column41WS.
A statement will be made to the House should the United Kingdom decide to commit additional forces to the international security assistance force (ISAF) in 2006.
Armed MOD Police
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will set out the (a) training programme and (b) rules of engagement for armed MOD police who guard (i) Aldermaston, (ii) Faslane and (iii) other UK departmental sites; and if he will make a statement. [40735]
Mr. Touhig: The training programme for all Ministry of Defence police (MDP) firearms officers follows the National Police Firearms Training Curriculum that was introduced in February 2004. The curriculum identifies the training that should be delivered to firearms officers and was introduced by the code of practice on 'Police Use of Firearms and Less Lethal Weapons'. Officers in Nuclear Guarding roles receive additional training to meet the requirements of the Ministry of Defence Joint service Publication 440 'Defence Manual of Security'.
MDP do not operate under 'Rules of Engagement' but are governed by the law relating to the use of force, as are all other UK police forces. The law is contained within:
Section 117 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and Article 88 Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989
The four types of legislation listed apply to MOD police who guard Aldermaston, Faslane and other UK departmental sites.
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