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3 Mar 2006 : Column 1020W—continued
Ministers Without Portfolio
Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from what date and for what reason it became the practice that Ministers Without Portfolio no longer answer written questions. [55796]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The tabling of written questions is a matter for the House Authorities.
Regulatory Reform
Andrew Miller: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will place in the Library his initial response to the Regulatory Reform Committee's 1st Special Report of Session 2005–06 [55900]
Mr. Jim Murphy: Copies of the response have been placed in the Library.
Spending Review (Efficiency Targets)
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much is expected to be saved as a result of meeting the civil service work force reductions targets for his Department set out in the 2004 Spending Review; and whether these savings count towards the agreed efficiency target for his Department set out in the review. [52806]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The expected saving for the Department is £5.65 million.
These savings count towards our agreed efficiency target.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the target level of employment expressed as full-time equivalents is in the Cabinet Office by April 2008, in order to meet the Cabinet Office's civil service workforce reductions target set out in the 2004 Spending Review. [52839]
Mr. Jim Murphy: I can confirm that the current target is 1,990.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what baseline figures he is using for assessing progress on the Cabinet Office's targets to (a) rationalise back office functions by continuing work on a shared corporate human resources centre with HM Treasury and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, (b) review back office systems and costs, (c) implement reforms in financial management and information technology and (d) improve procurement; what progress has been made towards these targets to date; and what the total efficiency savings achieved to date are for these targets. [52933]
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Mr. Jim Murphy: The baseline against which these efficiencies are measured is the outturn expenditure for Cabinet Office for 2003–04 and our workforce headcount figures reported on 1 April 2004.
The Cabinet Office achieved £1.2 million in efficiency savings in 2004–05. The breakdown across categories is shown in the table.
| Category | Savings |
|---|---|
| Rationalisation of back office functions | 0 |
| Review of back office systems and costs | 0.6 |
| Financial management and IT reforms | 0 |
| Improvements in procurement | 0.6 |
Our Internal Audit Service is calculating an independent review of our progress for 2005–06, but the unaudited figures show us to be ahead of trajectory towards achieving our final 2007–08 target.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what interim targets he has set for achieving (a) the agreed efficiency target for the Cabinet Office and (b) the civil service workforce reductions targets for (i) gross reductions in posts, (ii) net reductions in posts and (iii) relocations for the Cabinet Office, as set out in the 2004 Spending Review; what the baseline figures are against which these interim targets are assessed; on what dates they will take effect; and by what dates these interim targets are intended to be met. [52941]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The Efficiency Technical Note published on the Cabinet Office website sets out our current plans for achieving our efficiency target for 2007–08.
A revised Efficiency Technical Note will be published in spring 2006 to reflect our plans for a Cabinet Office that is more strategic and better focused on its core objectives.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Accidental Deaths
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the accidental deaths of UK citizens abroad whose cases were handled by consular staff in 2004–05, broken down by country; and in how many cases individuals were abroad on (a) tourist, (b) student, (c) business and (d) immigrant visas. [54715]
Dr. Howells:
The following table provides a breakdown by country of the number of British Nationals entered as accidental death cases during 2004–05 on our global assistance database. The total of 387 is lower than the figure of 389 given to my hon. Friend on 14 February 2006, as two duplicate cases were discovered on our database. It is possible that there were a small number of cases not recorded on the database but only recorded locally on paper files. The figure of 387 does not include any Tsunami cases; all 150 of these will be counted in the 2005–06 period due to the extended period of time in establishing this figure. We do not keep a record of the immigration status of these individuals.
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Source:
COMPASS-NG
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Asian Tsunami
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what Government financial help is available following the tsunami disaster to British citizens who are residents of Sri Lanka (a) to rebuild their businesses and (b) for other purposes. [55150]
Dr. Howells: No financial assistance is available to British citizens resident in Sri Lanka to rebuild their businesses following the tsunami disaster, nor for any other purposes.
The Tsunami Family Assistance Package ceased on 31 January 2006. The one (dual British/Sri Lankan) family resident in Sri Lanka who were entitled to assistance under the Family Assistance Package have not used it. They were informed of their entitlement.
Balata Refugee Camp
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Israeli government concerning its military attacks on the Balata refugee camp in Nablus; what estimate he has made of the number of civilians who have been (a) killed and (b) injured in the last seven days; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the killings on the continuance of the truce being observed by Hamas. [55144]
Dr. Howells: On 23 February, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) killed five Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus, four of them in the Balata refugee camp. We have no estimate of the number of Palestinians who may have been injured. However, the Israeli non-governmental organisation "Physicians for Human Rights" has protested about the injuring by the IDF of an ambulance man who was attempting to reach casualties during the clashes.
We condemn the recent upsurge in Israeli military activity in the West Bank and Gaza, and our Ambassador in Tel Aviv raised this with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, on 30 January. We have made no assessment of the effect of the Israeli military activity on the current truce held by Hamas.
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