You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Hansard > Commons Debates > Commons Debates by date > Commons Debates - previous sessions > Bound Volume Hansard - Written Answers

12 Jun 2006 : Column 865W

Written Answers to Questions

Monday 12 June 2006

Minister for Women

Regional Development Agencies (Representation)

Ms Abbott: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what assessment she has made of the representation of black and ethnic minority women on the boards of regional development agencies. [75354]

Margaret Hodge: I have been asked to reply.

At present three RDA board members are black or ethnic minority women, which represents 2.5 per cent. of total representation.

The Department is fully committed to strengthening the diversity of the RDA boards. Each year, awareness-raising events are run and information is distributed to appropriate organisations and other interested bodies in the regions. All of the material for these posts stresses that these appointments are made on merit and that applications from women, those from ethnic minority backgrounds and the disabled would be particularly welcome.

Retirement Planning

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps she is taking to encourage women to plan and save for their retirement. [75802]

Meg Munn: The Government's recent White Paper, “Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pensions System”, contains proposed reforms that will enable women to make more informed choices about planning and saving for retirement, by providing simpler, fairer and more widely available state pensions as the foundation on which to save.

Proposals include:


12 Jun 2006 : Column 866W

Solicitor-General

Compensation Claims (Handling Services)

John Mann: To ask the Solicitor-General whether the Treasury Solicitor's Department has negotiated with companies providing claims handling services, rather than solicitors, when dealing with compensation claims against Government Departments in connection with their role as employers since 1997. [76441]

The Solicitor-General: The Treasury Solicitor's Department does not maintain a central record of claimants' representatives. Whether or not a claimant was represented by a company providing claims handling services, rather than by solicitors, can therefore only be ascertained by retrieving the relevant files and examining the correspondence in order to discover the identity of each claimant's representative. Such an exercise would be labour intensive and would be at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Expenditure

Chris Huhne: To ask the Solicitor-General if he will list the 10 non-public sector entities that have received the largest total sum of payments from his Department in each of the last five years. [71779]

The Solicitor-General: I am answering this question on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSol) and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO). Returns for HMCPS Inspectorate and my own office are included in the figures for the Treasury Solicitors Department.

The last five years have been taken to be the financial years from 2001-02 to 2005-06.

Payments are taken to mean disbursements (and the value of any other consideration) for goods and services provided under a contract. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) understands that payments of grants, credits and subsidies under statutory obligations for which the department is responsible are out of scope.

CPS

2001-02

2002-03


12 Jun 2006 : Column 867W

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

SFO

2001-02

2002-03


12 Jun 2006 : Column 868W

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

TSOL

2001-02

2002-03


12 Jun 2006 : Column 869W

2003-04

Next Section Index Home Page