Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 30 October 2007
Scotland
Commonwealth Games: Glasgow
Mr. Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps his Department is taking to support Glasgow’s bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games. [161466]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office has been working closely with the Scottish Executive, DCMS and the Intellectual Property Office to facilitate and support Glasgow’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
I and my right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister, have all backed Glasgow’s bid, and hope that all the hard work of the Bid Committee is rewarded by Glasgow being named as the winning city.
Departments: Accountancy
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what departmental budget items have been reclassified, under Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, following Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 decisions; and what the (a) former and (b) new (i) classification and (ii) sum budgeted is in each case. [160407]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office had no reclassification changes following the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007.
Departments: Assets
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what departmental assets are planned to be sold in each financial year from 2007-08 to 2010-11; what the (a) description and (b) book value of each such asset is; and what the expected revenue from each such sale is. [160401]
Departments: Correspondence
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many letters he and his predecessors have sent in each of the last five years. [148614]
David Cairns: Scotland Office Ministers receive a range of letters each year including from Members of Parliament, Peers, Ministers, a range of external bodies and members of the public. Some are answered by Ministers and some by officials. The figures for the last five years are shown in the table.
| Total letters received by Scotland Office Ministers | Letters receiving ministerial reply | Letters receiving official reply | |
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many letters were sent by officials in his Department to Scottish Executive departments in each month since January 2005. [154400]
David Cairns: Daily contact between Scotland Office and Scottish Executive officials is usually by telephone, e-mail or in person. The Office does not maintain a central record of letters sent to the Scottish Executive, the costs of which would be disproportionate.
Departments: Cost Effectiveness
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will place in the Library a breakdown of his Department’s efficiency savings in relation to its Spending Review 2004 (SR04) targets, including (a) the efficiency projects in the Department, (b) the date on which they were initiated and (c) how much each was predicted to contribute to the SR04 target. [160543]
David Cairns: Following the 2004 spending review, provision for the Scotland Office and Office of the Advocate General was flat in nominal terms over the SR04 period. The Offices are committed to achieving efficiency and effectiveness in all areas of their activities and reduced their complement by over 21 per cent. between 2003-04 and 2004-05 with further reductions thereafter. Details are contained in the Offices’ Annual Reports.
Departments: Internet
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many websites his Department operates; how many it operated at 1 January 2005; and what the estimated annual cost has been of running his Department's websites in the last five years. [157917]
David Cairns: The Scotland office only operates one website:
At 1 January 2005 it also operated the website for the ‘Arbuthnott’ Commission on Boundary Differences and voting Systems:
Both websites were established in 2004-05. The total annual costs of designing, building and hosting the websites are set out in the following table.
| £ | |
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many hits the (a) most popular and (b) least popular website run by his Department has received since 1 January 2007. [157918]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office has only one website:
This site received 61,015 visits between January 1 and August 31 2007, by 30,825 unique visitors.
Departments: Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the name is of each special adviser in his Department. [153202]
David Cairns: The annual list of special adviser names will be published shortly.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether any of his Department’s special advisers have declared a conflict of interest. [160778]
David Cairns: Special advisers are appointed under terms and conditions set out in the “Model Contract for Special Advisers”. Copies of the “Model Contract” are available in the Libraries of the House.
Departments: Official Engagements
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what his official engagements were between 9 September and 7 October. [157031]
Des Browne: On Sunday 9 September and Monday 10 September I had no Scotland Office engagements.
On Tuesday 11 September I was in London where I met the Electoral Commission and had various other meetings including with ministerial colleagues and officials from the Scotland Office and MOD.
I was in Scotland from Wednesday 12 September to Sunday 16 September. On Wednesday 12 September I delivered a speech at the International Conflict Resolution Seminar at the University of Glasgow. On Thursday 13 September I met the Royal Mail in Edinburgh. On Friday 14 September and Saturday 15 September I was in my constituency.
From Monday 17 September to Wednesday 19 September I was in London where I had various meetings including with ministerial colleagues and officials from the Scotland Office and MOD. On Tuesday 18 September I met the Chairman of OFCOM.
From Thursday 20 September to Saturday 22 September I was in Scotland. On Thursday 20 September I was in Glasgow where I attended the opening of the new BBC building at Pacific Quay. That afternoon I met the chair of the Scottish Interfaith Council. On Friday 21 September and Saturday 22 September I was in my constituency.
From Sunday 23 September to Wednesday 26 September I was at the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth.
On Thursday 27 September I was in London where I had various meetings including with officials from the Scotland Office and MOD.
From Friday 28 September to Monday 1 October I undertook no Scotland Office engagements.
From Tuesday 2 October to Wednesday 3 October I was in London where I had various meetings with ministerial colleagues and officials from the Scotland Office and MOD.
From Thursday 4 October to Sunday 7 October I was in Scotland. On Thursday 4 October I was in Edinburgh where I had various meetings with Scotland Office officials and had a lunch meeting with the RBS Director of Group Economics and Corporate Affairs at their HQ in Edinburgh. From Friday 5 October to Sunday 7 October I was in my constituency.
Departments: Press
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland to which periodicals his Department subscribes. [153195]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office currently has no subscriptions to periodicals.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was spent by his Department on newspapers and magazines in the last 12 months. [153196]
Departments: Written Questions
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many and what percentage of questions tabled to his Department for answer on a named day received a substantive reply on the day named in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [161335]
David Cairns: The vast majority of questions tabled to the Scotland Office are ‘ordinary’ written and, of the small amount of ‘named day’ questions tabled, approximately 85 per cent. received a substantive reply on the day named.
Domestic Visits
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many journeys (a) Ministers and (b) Civil Servants in his Department made between London and Scotland on official business in each month since January; and how many of these journeys were made by (i) aeroplane, (ii) train and (iii) car. [154404]
David Cairns: The information requested is set out in the following table; there were no journeys by car. In relation to ministerial journeys, the information relates to travel paid by the Scotland Office. This does not include weekly travel between London and Ministers' homes in Scotland, paid by the House of Commons.
| Number of Journeys( 1) | ||||
| Aeroplane | Train | |||
| Ministers | Civil servants | Ministers | Civil servants | |
| (1) A return journey is classed as one journey; if, for example, the outward leg of a journey is undertaken by air and the return by train, this is shown as 0.5 of a journey under each column. | ||||
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