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27 Jun 2007 : Column 739W—continued
Television
Jim Dowd:
To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons
Commission how many television licences are held across the Commons Parliamentary Estate. [145664]
Nick Harvey: The Parliamentary Estates Directorate holds one Multiple Form Television Licence for all the private residences on the Estate.
Black Rod’s residence
Staff Superintendent’s residence
Serjeant at Arms’ residence
Office Keeper’s residence
Head Office Keeper’s residence
Senior Office Keeper’s residence
Clerk of the House’s residence
Speaker's Housekeeper’s apartment
Speaker's Secretary’s residence
The Lord Chancellor’s House
The Speaker’s House
22 John Islip Street
The working areas of the estate are currently exempt from requiring a licence because buildings used by and occupied by Government or Parliamentary employees do not need a television licence for televisions used for official purposes.
International Development
Departments: Consultants
Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department spent on (a) management consultants and (b) other external consultants and advisers in each year since 2000; and which of these consultants undertook work for the Department with a total contractual value in excess of £10 million over this period. [146334]
Mr. Thomas: The total spend on consultancy contracts by the Department for International Development (DFID) since 2000 is as follows:
| Total spend on consultants | |
| £ million | |
This includes both consultancy to deliver parts of the aid programme where services are often provided to third parties such as recipient Governments, and consultancy to DFID as an organisation. It does not include all low value contracts issued by DFID Departments and overseas offices, of which there are no consolidated records. We do not hold a central record of spend of management consultants as a separate category. These figures therefore contain spending on all types of consultancy.
The following table provides details of consultants, work undertaken and total contractual value in excess of £10 million.
Departments: European Union
Philip Davies:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many officials in his Department are (a) involved in assisting European Council negotiations, (b) involved in assisting and advising the European Commission, (c) seconded to the European
Commission, (d) involved in monitoring EU decisions, communications, regulations and directives, (e) involved in enforcing compliance with EU decisions, communications, regulations and directives and (f) involved in other work related to the European Council, Commission or Court of Justice. [146093]
Mr. Thomas: DFID has a core department of 21 staff working exclusively on European Union (EU) aid policy and implementation. This includes one post in the United Kingdom Permanent Representative to the EU (in Brussels). DFID also fields 18 seconded national experts, of which 17 work directly with the Commission in Brussels and one with the current presidency. A small number of additional DFID staff have been seconded to European Commission delegations in Africa. In addition, a variety of other departments in DFID deal with specific issues to which EU policy is relevant, including: trade, migration, aid effectiveness, climate change, and preparation of the EU-Africa Strategy. None of these other departments are exclusively EU focused. DFID does not have a mandate for enforcing compliance with EU decisions.
Justice
Prisons: Costs
Simon Hughes: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what the average annual cost of a prison place is in (a) each prison establishment, (b) privately-run prisons and (c) publicly-run prisons. [142702]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The figures provided are for 2005-06 and are taken from HM Prison Service Annual Report and the Office of Contracted Prisons Annual Report.
(a) The establishment costs per place are listed as shown.
(b) The average cost per place of the private prisons is £33,722
(c) The average cost per place of the public prisons is £28,486.
The costs quoted for privately-run and public prisons are not directly comparable, because of different financing structures and differences in services funded by other Government Departments. The public prisons’ costs quoted are the direct costs of each establishment and exclude Prison Service headquarters, depreciation and cost of capital charge on land and buildings, major maintenance and rates. The private prison costs are the direct cost of each establishment, including controllers and exclude depreciation, cost of capital charge/credit, repayment of capital, and rates.
There are also a number of factors which affect the costs of prisons and so comparisons must be made with caution. These factors include: the size of prison, its age, its design, the occupancy level, the prison security level, the type of prisoner and the activities carried on in the prison.
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