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14 Dec 2006 : Column 1334W—continued
The Christchurch office is 574 square metres. For the operational year 2006-07 the rent for the building will be £182,620 and the business rates will be £19,620. Seven full-time staff and four part-time staff are currently based at the office. The leases on our buildings are the responsibility of our partner organisation Land Securities Trillium. If we wish to vacate the premises we are required to give notice to Land Securities Trillium. It is then for them to sublet the building if there is any remaining time left on the lease. In the case of the Christchurch office we are required to give 12 months notice if we wish to vacate the premises.
I hope this is helpful.
Christmas Bonus
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) in which year the Christmas bonus was first paid to those in receipt of qualifying benefits; and what its value was in each year since its introduction in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms using 2004-05 prices; [103980]
(2) what the total cost of the Christmas bonus payment was in each year since its introduction. [103981]
James Purnell: The Christmas bonus was first paid in 1972.
The requested information is in the following tables.
The DWP expenditure tables can be viewed on the DWP website at the following address:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/expenditure.asp
City Strategy Programme
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost of the City Strategy programme was in each year since 2004-05; and what his estimate is of the likely cost in each year to 2010-11. [102249]
Mrs. McGuire: We announced our Cities Strategy in our welfare reform Green Paper; “A New Deal for Welfare: Empowering People to Work” in January 2006.
As the Cities Strategy has a roll-out date of April 2007, there are no costs for 2004-05 and 2005-06. A budget has not yet been announced beyond 2006.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimate is of the total amount his Department has spent on (a) plants and flowers, (b) redecoration, (c) taxis, (d) conferences which were subsequently cancelled, (e) foreign travel by Ministers and (f) press officers in each year since 2001. [105921]
Mrs. McGuire: Information that is available is provided in the following table.
The Department procures fully serviced accommodation from its private sector partner Land Securities Trillium through payment of an all inclusive unitary charge. This payment provides for redecoration and the provision of plants and flowers. It is not possible to extract those individual elements from the unitary charge.
All ministerial visits are conducted in accordance with the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers. Since 1999 the Government have published annually a list of overseas travel by Cabinet Ministers costing over £500 and the total cost of all ministerial travel. Information for 2005-06 was published on 24 July 2006. Copies are available in the Libraries of the House. Information for 2006-07 will be published as soon as possible after the end of the financial year.
| Spend (£) | |||
| (c) Taxis | (d) Conferences which were subsequently cancelled | (f) Press officers | |
| (1) The figure for April to October 2006 additionally includes £417,000 paid by staff on taxis and claimed back in expenses. This expenses information is now being collected centrally but is not available for previous years. Notes: 1. Details of spend in relation to (c) is available only from April 2003. The figures from that date to 2005-06 inclusive are in respect of directly invoiced taxi (including minibus and coach) fares only. 2. Information in respect of (d) is available only from August 2003. | |||
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