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4 Jun 2007 : Column 208W—continued

HMPS Consultancy Expenditure 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007—Annex 4
Consultancy	Project	Approximate value (£)
Hudsons	Software Design Consultant	18,000
Morgan Hunt	Statistician	33,480
IES	Independent Review of Job Evaluation System	10,000
IES	Impact Analysis for Movement to Pay and Grading System	41,400
University of Cambridge	Extension of grant to University of Cambridge PRC	668,000
PWC	Benchmarking Services	100,000
Udakka Ltd.	Exit Survey	25,000
Helen Sandwell	Nutrition, the Drug Strategy Support Unit	30,000
University of Cambridge	Prison Research Centre—Extension to Cambridge	12,478
lan Charters	Review of Business Continuity Plans	10,000
University of Cambridge	Assurance and management research (Phd)	38,000
Cardiff University	European Social Fund Grant Evaluation	19,015
Institute of Employment Studies	Extension for IES	10,000
Hudson	Software Design Consultant	9,000
Manchester University	Review of Deaths in Segregation	22,000

Departments: Marketing

Mr. Francois: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (1) what the cost was of designing, procuring and installing new signage for her Department in all buildings; [140021]

(2) how much her Department has spent on stationery featuring her new Department's name and logo; [140023]

(3) how much her Department has spent on business cards featuring her new Department's name and logo; [140024]

(4) if she will list all items in her Department branded with ‘Ministry of Justice’; and what the total cost has been of producing these items. [140025]

Mr. Hanson: Costs incurred by the Department for Constitutional Affairs up to 9 May 2007 in relation to the setting up of the Ministry of Justice are estimated at £1.5 million. These costs mainly relate to IT and estate changes to ensure the new Ministry can operate effectively. Additional costs arising from the integration of the various activities that constitute the new Ministry will be incurred after 9 May.

Mr. Francois: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what the cost of setting up her Department’s new website was. [140022]

Mr. Hanson: The cost of setting up www.justice.gov.uk was £21,458. These costs exclude ongoing web hosting arrangements and staffing costs. Most of the work was completed in house by the existing Ministry of Justice web team.

Departments: Statistics

Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice if she will take steps to collect statistics on erroneous data collections by her Department. [140210]

4 Jun 2007 : Column 209W

Ms Harman: Much of the data used in the Ministry of Justice is drawn from the administrative systems of the prison and probation services, or the courts. Although care is taken when analysing and publishing the resulting statistics, they are subject to the data quality constraints inherent in all large-scale administrative recording systems. Our statistical publications contain explanatory notes to this effect.

We are currently undertaking a programme of work to audit the quality of our data, and to identify priorities for improvement. This work aims to reduce the overall number of data collections, and remove or improve any which are of insufficient quality.

As part of the ongoing statistical analysis process, data collections are subject to a range of checks and controls that aim to detect errors and minimise their future occurrence. These will vary according to the operational setting, but can include:

Automated checks to ensure that data are arithmetically and logically valid.

Verification using existing trend data and other relevant sources.

Formal and informal dialogue with data suppliers.

It is possible to calculate periodic estimates of the “error rate” for certain specific Ministry of Justice data collections. However, where no alternative data sources exist, such estimates typically rely on labour-intensive manual checking, and therefore to produce them across all our data collections as a matter of routine would be disproportionately costly.

Divorce

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many (a) pension sharing orders and (b) divorces were granted in each month since December 2000. [140449]

Ms Harman: The following table contains data taken from the Family Man computer system in the county courts of England and Wales between January 2001 and December 2006. The data show the number of pension sharing orders and the number of decrees of dissolution of marriage recorded as having been made in that period. The significant increase in the number of pension sharing orders recorded from April 2004 onwards is the result of a change in the way the information was recorded. Prior to this, a certain category of ancillary relief orders was recorded in such a way that pension sharing orders could not be separately identified.

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4 Jun 2007 : Column 211W

Number of p ension s haring and d ivorces
	Total sharing orders	Total divorces
		Divorce petitions	Decrees nisi	Decrees absolute
2001
January	3	14,187	13,057	13,682
February	5	15,016	13,077	9,716
March	8	16,066	13,955	11,998
April	3	13,282	13,109	11,343
May	6	14,341	13,162	12,176
June	16	14,831	13,206	11,938
July	21	14,853	14,623	11,775
August	15	14,988	14,294	12,025
September	24	12,929	13,767	11,449
October	41	16,176	14,730	13,197
November	32	15,342	14,392	12,945
December	26	10,330	11,771	9,991
2002
January	43	14,550	14,717	14,176
February	40	15,373	13,519	10,005
March	77	15,385	14,141	11,365
April	106	15,309	13,477	13,191
May	130	16,449	15,509	13,189
June	77	12,418	12,298	10,904
July	183	16,041	15,461	13,015
August	123	14,759	13,769	12,188
September	134	14,485	13,896	12,738
October	226	16,553	15,751	13,308
November	214	14,996	15,013	12,436
December	196	10,906	13,429	10,947
2003
January	177	14,627	14,621	15,605
February	213	15,421	13,227	11,133
March	234	16,164	14,504	12,817
April	210	13,401	14,824	12,507
May	287	13,712	13,303	13,189
June	214	14,991	14,241	12,944
July	264	15,475	15,150	13,667
August	189	13,314	13,544	11,452
September	232	14,740	13,873	13,081
October	303	16,414	15,055	13,740
November	311	13,417	13,177	12,078
December	272	11,589	12,518	12,079
2004
January	280	12,912	14,045	14,077
February	257	15,319	12,943	11,564
March	377	17,185	15,647	13,902
April	890	13,576	13,973	12,577
May	980	12,869	13,043	12,102
June	1,055	14,567	14,493	13,352
July	979	14,335	14,290	13,395
August	1,020	13,604	14,971	12,206
September	988	14,024	14,301	13,568
October	949	13,712	12,746	12,685
November	1,030	14,392	14,760	13,012
December	913	10,845	11,122	11,347
2005
January	911	10,988	13,374	13,558
February	963	13,327	12,160	10,646
March	975	13,568	13,605	12,206
April	874	13,531	12,252	12,674
May	924	12,147	12,731	11,055
June	1,052	13,766	13,688	12,871
July	981	12,247	12,802	11,726
August	971	13,053	13,192	12,028
September	877	13,170	12,410	12,194
October	884	12,926	11,768	11,319
November	1,012	13,588	12,788	11,908
December	801	9,513	10,147	10,327
2006
January	833	11,399	12,974	11,783
February	880	12,615	11,773	10,142
March	988	14,694	13,467	12,514
April	724	10,775	11,757	10,143
May	783	12,666	11,897	11,564
June	916	13,228	12,105	11,452
July	805	11,974	11,889	10,678
August	804	12,922	12,155	11,413
September	844	12,568	11,780	10,999
October	841	13,112	12,565	11,275
November	927	13,394	11,985	11,807
December	750	9,217	10,895	9,387
	35,693	990,558	964,653	873,445

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