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27 Feb 2006 : Column 34W—continued
UK Force Planning
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to include UK private contractors in future UK force planning. [54383]
Mr. Ingram:
Contractors on Deployed Operations (CONDO) is an established mechanism for providing support alongside military capability, and is an alternative to Host Nation Support and various forms of multi-national logistic support agreements. CONDO is routinely considered during the Ministry of Defence's Force Estimation process and throughout the planning stages and life of operations. The use of CONDO is specific to each operational situation and must be fully justified, considering assurance of support to the military commander, risk to contractors' personnel and value for money.
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Vandalism
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the acts of vandalism which have been perpetrated (a) inside and (b) on the outside of his Department's buildings in the last 12 months. [49510]
Mr. Touhig: The information is not held centrally in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, during 2005, 669 acts of criminal damage were reported to the Ministry of Defence police and recorded. The figures relate to criminal damage in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and malicious mischief and vandalism in Scotland.
War on Terrorism
Peter Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his United States counterpart discussed with him during preparation of the United States national military strategic plan for the war on terrorism of US policies that may affect the United Kingdom. [52426]
John Reid: No; there was no formal discussion specifically related to this subject. There are regular discussions between the United States of America and the United Kingdom at all levels on a wide variety of counter terrorism issues.
White Phosphorus
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 12 December 2005, Official Report, column 1682W, to the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), on white phosphorus, what is considered a safe distance between deployed white phosphorus and non-combatants; and what attention is paid in assessing such a safe distance to wind direction and force. [49275]
John Reid: As I said in my answer of 12 December 2005, our armed forces go to great lengths to ensure that civilians and non-combatants are not harmed during operations; guidelines issued to British military personnel on the use of white phosphorus emphasise that it should not be deployed as an anti-personnel weapon. Commanders in the field draw upon training guidance relating to precautions to be taken in relation to our own forces when considering safe distances between deployed white phosphorus and non-combatants. The direction and force of wind have little effect on the dispersion of white phosphorus upon impact but are taken into account when calculating the passage of a round in flight.
I am withholding information about safe distances as its disclosure would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of our forces.
PRIME MINISTER
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Mr. Hands: To ask the Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the impact on the efficient working of Government of the absence of a Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. [53816]
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The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House gave to the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) on 2 February 2006, Official Report, column 467.
Energy Efficient Measures
Mr. Hands: To ask the Prime Minister what energy efficient measures he has introduced at numbers (a) 10 and (b) 11 Downing street. [53828]
The Prime Minister: For these purposes my Office forms part of the Cabinet Office. I have therefore asked my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office (Jim Murphy) to reply. A copy of the reply will be placed in the Library of the House.
Honours (Forfeiture)
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy for honours to be forfeited if the holder is judged to have behaved dishonourably. [54114]
The Prime Minister: Forfeiture is considered in cases where the retention of an honour would bring the honours system into disrepute. The Sovereign may, on the advice of Ministers, cancel membership of any of the Orders of Chivalry or appointment as Knight Bachelor.
House of Lords Appointments Commission
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Prime Minister what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. [52533]
The Prime Minister: The Commission has carried out its duties effectively, and continues to do so.
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Prime Minister when the House of Lords Appointments Commission is expected to advise him on the suitability of persons most recently proposed for elevation to the peerage. [54113]
The Prime Minister: The process of consideration for the next list is continuing.
Iraq
Mr. Harper: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 15 February 2006 (50367), for what reasons he will not disclose the (a) dates and (b) locations of his visits to British soldiers injured in Iraq. [54483]
The Prime Minister: The reasons are set out in the press briefing to which my answer of 15 February referred.
Livestock Market (Shrewsbury)
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Prime Minister if he will come to Shrewsbury in March to open the new livestock market. [52084]
The Prime Minister:
I have no current plans to do so. However, I understand that my noble Friend Lord Bach, the Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food would be happy to attend, subject to diary commitments.
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Meetings
David Simpson: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his answer of 5 December 2005, Official Report, columns 1038–1039W, on Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill and his answer of 20 December 2005, Official Report, column 2653W, on meetings, which issues of national security prevent him from revealing dates of past meetings. [53618]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 5 December 2005, Official Report, columns 1038–1039W.
Steve Webb: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list the attendees at the round-table meeting of the NHS Partner's Network on 16 February 2006. [54076]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the press briefing given by my official spokesman on 16 February 2006, a copy of which is available on the Number 10 website. The meeting was attended by representatives from a wide range of organisations, from both within Government and outside Government.
Milk Prices
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Prime Minister if he will host a meeting in Downing street between Shropshire dairy farmers and the chief executives of Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's to discuss the price paid by those supermarkets for the milk they buy. [52258]
The Prime Minister:
I have no current plans to do so. However, my noble Friend Lord Bach, the Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food, has had a number of meetings with dairy farmers and those who represent their interests. He also chairs the Dairy Supply Chain Forum at which both farmers and retailers are represented, and which meets regularly to discuss dairy issues.
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CABINET OFFICE
Advertising
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much his Department spent on recruitment advertising in each year since 1997–98; how many posts were involved in each case, broken down by salary band; and if he will list the publications in which his Department placed paid recruitment advertising in each year. [52445]
Mr. Jim Murphy: Table one shows Cabinet Office recruitment advertising expenditure for 2004–05 and 2005–06 broken down by salary band. Cabinet Office systems are not sufficiently structured to provide accurate information on these issues prior to 1 April 2004.
Publications in which Cabinet Office has placed recruitment advertisements are only available from 2001, and are shown in table two.
The Cabinet Office is also responsible for the advertising and filling of Fast Stream vacancies across the Civil Service. Publications in which Cabinet Office has placed Fast Stream recruitment advertisements are shown in table three and represents the number of occasions a publication was used. This data is only available from 2001.
The costs incurred for Fast Stream advertising and the number of posts filled as a result of this advertising are shown in table four. All Fast Stream posts are recruited to Pay Band B2 HEO(D).
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| Costs (£000) | Number of posts | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 104 | 411 |
| 2002–03 | 89 | 510 |
| 2003–04 | 67 | 467 |
| 2004–05 | 81 | 504 |
| 2005–06 | (9)35 | Scheme still running |
(9) Anticipated spend for current financial year: £47,000
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) if he will list the advertising campaigns undertaken by his Department in each year since 1997–98; [52357]
(2) pursuant to the answer of 6 February 2006, Official Report, column 849W, on Government communications, what the (a) initial budget and (b) final expenditure was for each advertising campaign that his Department has undertaken in each year since 1997–98. [52358]
Mr. Jim Murphy: For details of recruitment advertising undertaken by the Department, I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) on recruitment advertising on 14 February 2006, Official Report, columns 1914–15W.
The Cabinet Office has devolved responsibility for occasional small-scale advertising in support of policies to management units. Records are not held centrally for this activity and to provide that information would result in disproportionate costs.
Details of significant campaigns placed through the Central Office of Information with spend are shown in the table. To provide details of individual management units initial budgets that are not held centrally would result in disproportionate cost.
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(10) This was the Cabinet Office contribution to a cross government campaign.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the (a) press office staff costs were and (b) advertising expenditure was for the National School of Government for 2005–06; and what he expects the costs to be in 2006–07. [52361]
Mr. Jim Murphy: Cabinet Office press office is a centrally run operation for the whole of Cabinet Office providing general media support. It has not allocated specific press officers to the National School of Government.
The National School of Government's estimate for the total expenditure on advertising for 2005–06 is £125,000, of which £35,000 relates to publicising specific programmes and £50,000 is on recruitment advertising predominantly where that is required to meet the requirements of fair and open competition when replacing staff who have left. The estimated spend is based on actual expenditure incurred up to and including December plus an estimate of expenditure
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from January to March 2006. The data includes expenditure on advertising for CMPS for the period prior to the establishment of the National School of Government on 20 June 2005. CMPS was incorporated into the National School of Government.
The Cabinet Office and the National School of Government are currently planning budgets and resources for next year so I am unable to forecast the National School of Government's advertising expenditure for 2006–07 at present.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster pursuant to the answer of 6 February 2006, Official Report, column 849W, on Government communications, if he will list each occurrence of recruitment advertising for specialist placements within the Government Information and Development Centre for each year since 1997–98; and what the total cost was in each year. [52362]
Mr. Jim Murphy: External advertising for communication specialists in the former Government Information and Communication Service centre in the Cabinet Office (including the Development Centre) was only used for the recruitment of the permanent secretary government communication in November 2003 and for a range of posts in the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU). The cost of advertising the permanent secretary post was £13,800. MMU recruitments since 1997 included two new unit heads and a number of media monitors; there are no separate records of expenditure on these.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list the publications in which his Department has placed paid advertising in each year since 1997–98. [52363]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The Cabinet Office does not hold central records of the specific publications in which all paid advertising has been placed and to collect and collate that information would result in disproportionate costs.
I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave him today which provided details of paid advertising for Cabinet Office recruitment from 1 April 2004 when Cabinet Office systems were created to record this particular area of advertising.
When placing advertising the Cabinet Office takes advice from the Central Office of Information or recruitment agency involved.
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