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Departmental Staff

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what incentives (a) each Department in Northern Ireland and (b) the Northern Ireland Office, offer to encourage staff to share vehicles when travelling to work. [73086]

David Cairns: The Chief Executive of Roads Service (Dr. Malcolm McKibbin) has been asked to write to the hon. Gentleman in response to this question.

Letter from Dr. Malcolm McKibbin:

You recently asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland a Parliamentary Question about what incentives each department in Northern Ireland, including the Northern Ireland Office, offer to encourage staff to share vehicles when travelling to work.

I have been asked to reply as this issue falls within my responsibility as Chief Executive of Roads Service.

The Travelwise Campaign in Northern Ireland is aimed at promoting more sustainable transport options, including walking, cycling, greater use of public transport and the concept of car sharing, particularly for the journey to work and places of education.

Travelwise NI assists Government Departments as well as private and public sector businesses in promoting workplace travel plans, to encourage staff to travel more sustainably. Car Sharing is only one element of a travel plan.

To facilitate car sharing in Government Departments, in June last year, Nigel Hamilton, Head of the NI Civil Service launched the Travelwise NI Car Share Scheme on behalf of Roads Service. This is a no-charge web-based scheme where Civil Servants are encouraged to go on-line at www.travelwisenicarshare.com and register their journey details. The system automatically searches for a person travelling in the same direction and puts staff in contact with each other to share their journeys.

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The scheme has been widely promoted across Government Departments through the media, information days, internal magazines and competitions and has now been rolled out to businesses and to the public. To date, 1,312 members have registered on the scheme and 38% of members have had their journeys matched and are potentially car sharing.

By way of local incentives, the Department for Regional Development created 21 dedicated car share spaces at its Headquarters in Clarence Court, Belfast, to encourage greater car sharing among staff. I also understand that the Department of Finance and Personnel and the Department of Education offer staff who car share a guaranteed car parking space at some of their buildings.

I should also add that Roads Service is currently responsible for 20 Park & Ride/Park & Share car parks across the province which provide 1,478 car park spaces. Civil Servants, like any member of the public, can park their cars at these sites and share the journey to work, thereby reducing travel costs. These sites are promoted at a Divisional level as well as through the Travelwise NI Website (www. travelwiseni.com). Further Park & Ride and Park & Share sites have been identified within the Sub-Regional Transport Plan and the Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan.

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what percentage of staff in (a) each department in Northern Ireland and (b) the Northern Ireland Office, are making additional voluntary contributions to their pension. [73087]

Mr. Hanson: The following table details the number and percentage of staff in each department in Northern Ireland, including the Northern Ireland Office who are making additional voluntary contributions to their pensions.

Figures relating to the Northern Ireland Office include both members of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and the Home Civil Service working in that Department.

Employing dept	Active members	AVC contributors	Overall percentage
Department of Education	667	25	3.75
Northern Ireland Office	4303	107	2.49
Department of Finance and Personnel	2982	124	4.16
Department of the Environment	3506	90	2.57
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development	3415	177	5.18
Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety	973	40	4.11
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure	450	10	2.22
Department of Regional Development	3092	148	4.79
OFM and DFM	375	36	9.6
Department of Social Development	7914	87	1.1
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry	716	45	6.28
Department of Employment and Learning	1818	44	2.42
Total	30,211	933	3.09

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many non-pensionable bonuses were awarded to staff in (a) each department in Northern Ireland and (b) the Northern Ireland Office, in each of the last three years; and what the total cost was. [73088]

Mr. Hanson: The following table details the non-pensionable bonuses that were awarded to staff in each Department of the Northern Ireland Administration and the Northern Ireland Office (including Agencies), in each of the last three financial years.

It is part of the Government's pay policy that not all reward should be in the form of consolidated increases: non-consolidated, non-pensionable payments should also be part of civil service pay strategies and should focus on in-year performance. These payments, which form part of the annual NICS pay deal, represent the bulk of the following figures.

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	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	All three years
Department	Number of bonuses	Cost	Number of bonuses	Cost	Number of bonuses	Cost	Total number	Total cost
DFP	2,500	579,547	2,606	354,974	2,733	856,099	7,839	1,790,620
DARD	2,554	524,265	2,868	353,296	2,710	781,372	8,132	1,658,933
OFMDFM	324	130,510	383	113,665	369	207,305	1,076	451,480
DCAL	442	84,388	380	58,760	410	126,786	1,232	269,934
DRD	2,451	520,671	2,753	340,103	2,897	861,459	8,101	1,722,233
DOE	1,984	499,538	2,387	500,367	1,745	485,997	6,116	1,485,902
DETI	553	128,722	586	79,030	632	217,466	1,771	425,218
DSD	6,589	1,160,602	7,500	744,997	7,803	1,967,979	21,892	3,873,578
DHSSPS	843	270,675	939	186,259	951	386,117	2,733	843,051
DE	571	152,338	629	118,880	571	207,665	1,771	478,883
DEL	1,245	228,849	1,349	122,607	1,591	415,092	4,185	766,548
NIO	990	250,714	2,709	499,138	2,004	650,772	5,703	1,400,624
Total	21,046	4,530,819	25,089	3,472,076	24,416	7,164,109	70,551	15,167,004

Roads

Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much the Department for Regional Development spent on improving the road network in County (a) Tyrone, (b) Derry and (c) Fermanagh in each of the past five years; and how much the Department has budgeted for (i) 2006-07 and (ii) the next two years for roads in these counties. [73222]

David Cairns: The Chief Executive of Roads Service (Dr. Malcolm McKibbin) has been asked to write to the hon. Gentleman in response to this question.

Letter from Dr. Malcolm McKibbin, dated 25 May 2006:

You recently asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland a Parliamentary Question about how much the Department for Regional Development spent on improving the road network in County (a) Tyrone, (b) Derry and (c) Fermanagh in each of the past five years; and how much the Department has budgeted for (i) 2006-07 and (ii) the next two years for roads in these counties.

I have been asked to reply as this issue falls within my responsibility as Chief Executive of Roads Service.

First of all I must advise that Roads Service does not maintain details of expenditure on a county basis. However, such information is available on a district council basis. The table below details Roads Service's expenditure on major and minor capital works improvements for the nine district councils whose boundaries straddle Counties Tyrone, Londonderry and Fermanagh:

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