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29 Oct 2007 : Column 617W—continued

Departments: Department of Health

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when the Department of Health was last represented on his Department’s Delivery Council. [159782]

Gillian Merron: The Department of Health was last represented at the Delivery Council meeting on 27 February 2007.

Departments: Expenditure

Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much 10 Downing street spent on (a) cosmetics and (b) make-up artists for media appearances, in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) since the Prime Minister took up office. [160434]

Gillian Merron: 10 Downing street did not incur any expenditure on cosmetics and make up artists for media appearances, in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) since Prime Minister Brown took up office.

Departments: Manpower

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many staff are (a) employed, (b) were employed in April 2007 and (c) are expected to be employed in December 2007 in the Strategy Unit. [159802]


29 Oct 2007 : Column 618W

Edward Miliband: At the end of December 2006 the Strategy Unit employed 50.74 FTE(1) members of staff. At the end of April 2007 42.8 FTE were employed and currently 43.4 FTE are employed.

Departments: Ministerial Policy Advisers

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the name is of each special adviser in his Department. [153293]

Edward Miliband: The annual list of special adviser names will be published shortly.

Departments: Public Appointments

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will place in the Library copies of his Department’s guidance on appointments to the Delivery Council. [159781]

Gillian Merron: Appointments to the Delivery Council are made on a case by case basis in discussion with the relevant Permanent Secretary or equivalent. The Public Service Reform page on the Cabinet Office website:

offers general advice on the remit and role of members. However, there is no formal guidance on appointments to the Delivery Council.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who the members are of his Department’s (a) Delivery and (b) Contact Council; and on what date each was appointed. [159783]

Gillian Merron: The following are the latest members of the Delivery Council. Except where indicated appointments date from the first meeting of the group on 29 June 2006:


29 Oct 2007 : Column 619W

The following are members of the Contact Council. Except where indicated appointments date from the first meeting of the group on 8 March 2007:

Departments: Public Expenditure

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on what dates his Department breached its (a) resource, (b) near-cash, (c) administration and (d) capital budgets since 2001; what the value of each breach was; and what the reason was for each breach. [160311]

Gillian Merron: The Cabinet Office breached its resource budget in financial year 2002-03.

The Cabinet Office has not breached its near cash budget, administration budget, nor capital budget on any occasion during the financial years ended since 2001.

On 31 March 2003, Net Resource Requirement totalled £2.4 million in excess of the amount authorised and this was after obtaining HM Treasury approval for virement to apply the underspends falling within Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) to reduce the overspends within Annually Managed Expenditure (AME).

Within AME, there arose unbudgeted expenditure of £4.5 million arising from the fall in value of information technology assets.

Following consultation with the National Audit Office, the Cabinet Office concluded the values of software assets used by Transformational Government
29 Oct 2007 : Column 620W
(formerly e-Envoy) in the development of websites for the Government Gateway and the Knowledge Network were overstated.

Departments: Public Participation

Mrs. May: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) how many citizens’ juries were arranged for (a) his Department and (b) his Department’s agencies in each year since 1997; which organisations were commissioned to conduct each citizens’ jury; and what the cost was of each; [160013]

(2) how many citizens’ juries have been arranged by the Cabinet Office since June; which organisations were commissioned to conduct each citizens’ jury; and what the estimated cost is of each exercise. [159492]

Edward Miliband: The Cabinet Office held a day long deliberative forum attended by the Leader of the House on 20 October 2007 on the draft legislative programme. This was delivered by IPSOS Mori, after a competitive exercise run by COI. The estimated cost is £52,575.

Deliberative fora were also used as part of the Policy Review process. I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 9 July 2007, Official Report, column 1259W.

Data from 1997 are not readily available and would require a significant review of all engagement activities and analysis of the techniques used, extracting data at a disproportionate cost.

Departments: Public Relations

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what his Department's budget is for media, press and public affairs training for 2007-08. [159918]

Gillian Merron: The Cabinet Office has no specific budget for media, press and public affairs training, which is funded from units' general training budgets, and it is not possible to distinguish.

Departments: Publications

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will place in the Library copies of the (a) agenda and (b) minutes of the last four meetings of his Department’s (i) Delivery and (ii) Contact Council. [159780]

Gillian Merron: As part of the development of the Service Transformation Agreement these groups have been responsible for discussing the challenges and opportunities associated with transformation so that advice is given to departmental Ministers.

These groups give advice to Ministers. It is not normal practice to disclose details of such meetings.

Departments: Resignations

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many staff left the (a) Strategy and (b) Delivery Unit in each month since March, broken down by pay band. [159798]


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Edward Miliband: The number of staff leaving the Strategy Unit and Delivery Unit in each month since March 2007 is shown in the following tables. It would not be normal practice to publish further information relating to such small numbers in order to protect the confidentiality of individuals.

Strategy Unit
Month (2007) Number of staff (FTE)( 1)

March

4

April

2

May

1

June

2

July

4

August

4

September

1.5

October

1.5


Delivery Unit
Month (2007) Number of staff (FTE)( 1)

March

April

May

1

June

5

July

2

August

3

September

4

October

6

(1) Full-time equivalents.

Departments: Secondment

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many staff from HM Treasury have been seconded to the Strategy Unit since June, broken down by pay band; and how many such staff are expected to be seconded to his Strategy Unit in the next six months. [159800]

Edward Miliband: In order to protect the confidentiality of individuals, it is standard Government practice not to publish records relating to five or less individuals.

Departments: Security

Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on how many occasions since 2002 attempts were made to gain unauthorised access to (a) computers and (b) buildings in his Department; and of those how many were successful. [151269]

Gillian Merron: Since 2002, there have been four recorded attempts to gain unauthorised access to computers in my Department, all of which were successful external hacking. There have been seven recorded attempts to gain unauthorised access to buildings, five of which resulted in unauthorised access.

The Cabinet Office regularly reviews its security processes and procedures to minimise risks to its staff and assets. All breaches are investigated fully and any additional measures required as a consequence are swiftly implemented.


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