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14 Feb 2006 : Column 1856W—continued
Inquests (Oxfordshire)
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many inquests on military fatalities are outstanding at Oxfordshire's coroner's court. [50572]
Ms Harman:
The Oxfordshire coroner has informed me that of the 103 military and other fatalities where bodies have been returned from Iraq since 2003, 30
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inquests have been concluded, two cases have been transferred to other coroners, 11 inquests are due to be concluded within the next few weeks and in 60 cases a date for the inquest is yet to be fixed.
Magistrates Courts
Mr. David: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what account is taken of a tenderer's previous performance in the evaluation of tenders for provision of enforcement services to magistrates' courts. [51656]
Ms Harman: Previous performance within similar contracts was taken account of at appropriate stages of the procurement exercise for enforcement services for HMCS. In particular it was a factor in the pre-qualification stage" in the evaluation process. At this stage those wishing to tender were evaluated against a number of factors to assess that they were a suitable and viable company, which could meet the needs of the specified requirement, and could therefore be invited to tender.
Parliamentary Questions
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many parliamentary questions tabled by in the last 12 months for answer by her on a named day (a) were transferred and (b) received a substantive answer (i) on the day named and (ii) after the day named. [49886]
Bridget Prentice: My Department aims to ensure that Members receive a substantive response to their named day question on the named day. From January 2005 to December 2005, my Department received 256 named day parliamentary questions of which 15 were transferred, 177 received a substantive answer on the day named and 64 were answered after the day named.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many ordinary written parliamentary questions tabled for answer by her in the last 12 months have been answered (a) within 14 days, (b) between 14 and 28 days, (c) between 28 days and two months and (d) in excess of two months after the date of tabling; and if she will make a statement. [49907]
Bridget Prentice: My Department endeavours to answer ordinary written questions within a working week of being tabled. From January 2005 to December 2005, my Department received 1,141 parliamentary questions of which (a) 1,104 were answered within 14 days (b) 37 were answered between 14 and 28 days (c) none between 28 days and two months and (d) none in excess of two months after the date of tabling.
Vandalism
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will list the acts of vandalism which have been perpetrated (a) inside and (b) on the outside of her Department's buildings in the last 12 months. [49508]
Ms Harman: For DCA Headquarters buildings:
For the courts estate, DCA's courts and tribunals reported a total of 18 incidents of damage to property in the period from 1 January to 31 March 2005:
(a) internal incidents at: Llanelli county court (damage to furniture); Southwark Crown court (twice flooded toilets); Blackfriars Crown (damage to internal door); Birkenhead county court (sign ripped down); Swindon combined court (cell door damaged); and
(b) external damage at Carmarthen county court (windows broken twice); Romford county court (crest removed from front); Chelmsford county court (car park barrier arm damaged); and eight incidents involving graffiti and minor damage at Loughborough Immigration Appellate Authority.
Since April 2005, when Her Majesty's Courts Service was formed, it has had 85 reported acts of damage to property in the period to 31 December 2005. Detail is held locally, including the nature of the damage or cause, and whether incidents were internal or external. Obtaining such an analysis would involve disproportionate cost.
SCOTLAND
Departmental Assets
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the items valued at over £100 that have been reported as stolen from Scotland Office buildings in the past 12 months. [43440]
David Cairns: From 1 January to 31 December 2005, only one item was reported as stolen from any Scotland Office building.
| Item description | Value at date of loss (£) |
|---|---|
| Multi-media projector | 766 approximately |
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the items of departmental property worth over £100 that have been reported as (a) lost and (b) broken in the last 12 months. [47676]
David Cairns: From 1 January to 31 December 2005, the Scotland Office had one item of property reported as lost with a value over £100.
| Item | Value at date of loss (£) |
|---|---|
| BlackBerry | 249 |
There have been no reports of broken items, with a value over £100.
Departmental Expenditure
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the annual expenditure on vehicles by his Department was in each of the last three financial years; and what the planned expenditure is for 2005–06. [40127]
David Cairns:
For details of expenditure on ministerial vehicles provided to the Office by the Government Car and Despatch Agency I refer the hon. Member to the
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letter of 20 December 2005 from the chief executive of the Government Car and Despatch Agency to the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker). Copies of this letter are available in the Library.
Departmental Staff
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans his Department has to change the London allowance of its staff; and if he will make a statement. [50009]
David Cairns: The London pay allowance is automatically increased in line with the all-items retail price index each July.
Freedom of Information Act
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what total sum has been received by his Department for the provision of information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in its first year of operation. [48491]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office has not received any monies in relation to the provision of information under the Freedom of Information Act in its first year of operation.
The Freedom of Information Act allows for public authorities to determine when the cost of processing a request will exceed the appropriate limit, which for central Government is set at £600 and for the wider public sector £450. In this instance the public authority may decide to either approach the applicant to help them refine their request and where possible to bring it under the appropriate limit. Alternatively, public authorities may charge the applicant the cost of processing the request. There is, however, no obligation for Departments to provide information if the cost of processing the request exceeds the appropriate limit.
Public authorities may also charge for disbursements when handling requests where it is deemed appropriate. Further information on the FOI fees regime can be found on the DCA website at http://www.foi.gov.uk/feesguide.htm
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Administrative Costs
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the administrative costs were of each non-departmental public body for which he has responsibility in the last year for which figures are available; what the total of such costs was in that year; and whether the costs are regarded for the purposes of public expenditure statistical analyses as (a) identifiable and (b) non-identifiable. [40064]
Alan Johnson:
The DTI is currently responsible for 31 executive non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), including eight regional development agencies and 8 research councils, 22 advisory NDPBs and eight tribunal NDPBs. Apart from the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), an executive NDPB, these NDPBs are not covered by the Treasury's administration budgets regime.
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For the year 2004–05 the administration costs of Acas were £49,048k. This expenditure is regarded as non-identifiable for the purposes of the public expenditure statistical analyses. Expenditure by the other NDPBs does not distinguish between administration costs and other costs in a comparable manner. Expenditure by such bodies is a mixture of identifiable and non-identifiable, depending on the nature and purpose of the particular body.
Further information on the DTIs NDPBs, including details of Government funding and expenditure by the Department, can be found in Public Bodies 2005, a copy of which is in the Libraries of the House, and which is available online at:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/the_future_of_the_civil_service/ag encies_and_public_bodies/publications/pdf/public-bodies/publicb odies2005.pdf.
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