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18 Dec 2007 : Column 1461W—continued
Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation: Nottinghamshire
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what land and buildings the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation owns in (a) Bassetlaw and (b) Nottinghamshire. [174658]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 17 December 2007]: The Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation is a registered charity wholly independent of any Government Department. Information on its current ownership of land and buildings would best be obtained from the organisation itself.
Defence Export Services Organisation
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what costs have been incurred by the transfer of the Defence Export Services Organisation to UK Trade and Investment of its responsibilities; and if he will make a statement. [175371]
Mr. Thomas: The cost of machinery of Government changes will be met by relevant Departments within existing departmental budgets.
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what contracts his Department has with external consultants; what the total value, including all VAT and disbursements, of these contracts are for the current financial year; how long each contract lasts; and what the forecasted total value is of each contract. [163811]
Mr. Thomas: Central records indicate that the total value of contracts with external consultants for the current financial year is £8.7 million.
Further information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Correspondence
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what percentage of inquiries received by his Department from the public were responded to within (a) one week, (b) 14 days, (c) 28 days, (d) two months and (e) three months in the last period for which figures are available; and in what percentage of cases it took (i) over three months and (ii) over one year to respond. [167378]
Mr. Thomas: The Department does not keep statistics on these response times therefore a response could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he will reply to the letters of 25 May, 25 July and 4 September from the hon. Member for Weston-Super-Mare regarding his constituent Mr. Ivor Chivers and his company Eco Solutions. [173936]
Mr. Thomas: There have been responses to two of the hon. Member’s letters, a third response will be issued shortly. I have asked for all responses to be faxed to the hon. Member’s parliamentary office.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many employees of each grade in his Department (a) have access to confidential or sensitive data and (b) are authorised to download such data to disc; how many of his Department's employees have undergone data protection training in the last 12 months; what the average length of time is that each employee of (i) his Department and (ii) his Department's agencies has spent on data protection training; how many investigations of employees of his Department for improperly accessing confidential information have taken place in the last 12 months; how many such investigations resulted in cases of disciplinary action; and what the circumstances of each of those cases were. [168267]
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what records are kept by his Department of attempted hacking or suspected cyber attacks or other malicious computer security breaches committed against his Department's computer systems. [174431]
Mr. Thomas: I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 21 November 2007, Official Report, column 1179. The review by the Cabinet Secretary and security experts is looking at procedures within Departments and agencies for the storage and use of data. A statement on Departments' procedures will be made on completion of the review.
Departmental Manpower
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many reports have been made to his Department’s nominated officers under paragraph 16 of the revised Civil Service Code since its publication on 6 June 2006. [162450]
Mr. Thomas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for the East Midlands my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Gillian Merron) on 19 November 2007, Official Report, column 596W.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many Welsh speakers his Department employs. [162891]
Mr. Thomas: The information requested is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what organisations within his responsibilities were discovered to have security staff who were illegal immigrants by the recent review of licences granted by the Security Industry Authority; and if he will make a statement. [165153]
Mr. Thomas: To date BERR has not been advised by the SIA of any security staff who are employed by the Department’s security contractor who have been or who are illegal immigrants.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisors
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the office costs for his Department’s special advisers for 2007-08 are expected to be, including costs of support staff; and how many full-time equivalent civil servants work in support of such special advisers. [164937]
Mr. McFadden: The Code of Conduct for Special Advisers states that
“In order to enable special Advisers to work effectively, departments may allocate permanent civil servants to provide support of a non-political nature”.
There are three full-time equivalent staff who are directly employed to support BERR’s departmental special advisers. All three provide administrative
support of a non-political nature in accordance with the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers. Information on the cost of these staff cannot be provided. The numbers are so few that to reveal the cost could identify an individual’s salary, which is confidential between the individual and the employer.
Office costs will be accounted for in the 2007-08 departmental annual report and accounts.
Departmental Pay
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many people in his Department and its predecessors were paid over £100,000 in each year since 1997. [167187]
Mr. Thomas: The number of staff earning £100,000 or more for BERR and predecessor Departments since 2005 is provided as follows. Information before 2005 can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
| Financial year | Number of people |
Salaries of senior staff are reported in the Department’s annual resource accounts, copies of which are accessible via the BERR public website.
Departmental Publicity
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidelines issued to staff maintaining his Department's and its agencies' corporate identity; and what the estimated annual cost is of (a) producing and (b) complying with such guidelines. [170241]
Mr. Thomas: The Department does not update its branding rules annually. Following the creation of BERR in June 2007, we produced guidelines on using the new logo. A fully revised version of the branding rules is currently being produced. The estimated one-off cost of producing these guidelines is £24,000. My Department will place a copy of this document in the Library when it is available, expected to be around the end of January 2008.1 am unable to identify how much staff time is spent on complying with the corporate guidelines without incurring disproportionate costs.
Following the establishment of BERR, Companies House has used staff resources of approximately £32,000 on co-branding compliance.
Insolvency Service has branding guidelines which were produced internally at a one-off cost in staff time of £2,500.1 am unable to identify how much staff time is spent on complying with the corporate guidelines without incurring disproportionate costs.
UK Trade and Investment's costs in maintaining its brand guidelines are £850.00 per month for hosting on the UKTI website. They estimate that one third of one FTE of their communications' staff time is spent on managing brand guidelines.
Departmental Recycling
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) what (a) volume and (b) percentage of its waste his Department recycled in each of the last five years. [172511]
(2) how much and what proportion of its waste his Department and its predecessor recycled in each of the last five years. [174428]
Mr. Thomas: The following table details the total waste arisings and recovered and recycled weights, where available for the past five years.
The remaining volume of waste that is not recovered or recycled is accounted for by the fly and bottom ash as a result of incineration. This is then often used in the road construction process.
| Total waste arisings | Recovered (kg) | Recycled | Percentage Recovered | Recycled | |
To further improve recycling across the BERR estate, extended recycling facilities have been rolled out, which captures cans, plastics, paper, card, glass and batteries. Additionally the Department will be trialling the removal of desk bins to encourage staff to segregate waste for recycling.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what his Department’s policy is on recycling. [174400]
Mr. Thomas: The Department has an environmental policy and operates an environmental management system which incorporates its procedures for dealing with waste minimisation and waste disposal. The Department practices the waste hierarchy of prevention, minimisation, re-use, recycling, energy recovery, disposal to landfill.
Departmental Reorganisation
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the cost of (a) designing and (b) implementing the usage of the Department’s interim logo in use immediately after 27 June was. [173181]
Mr. Thomas: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave to PQ 157389, answered on 25( )October 2007, Official Report, column 491W, in which I said that costs to date associated with the use of the name of the new Department were approximately £77,000. These included the costs of design, items such as new signage and changes to the website and other electronic media.
The costs specifically relating to the design of the interim logo (including creating and providing formats for print and web usage) were £11,132.46 excluding VAT.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the cost of (a) designing and (b) implementing the usage of the Department's existing logo was. [173182]
Mr. Thomas: The cost of designing the current version of the Department’s logo was £6,125 excluding VAT.
As at 21 November 2007, total design and branding costs incurred in setting up BERR were £218,063. These included stationery, IT changes including revised e-mail addresses, new signage, web based changes, new logo and print costs, including the re-launch of BERR on 1 November 2007, and the anticipated cost of branding guidelines, which are expected to be completed in January 2008.
Departmental Stationery
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much was spent by his Department on headed paper in each of the last five years; and what the cost per sheet was in each such year. [173163]
Mr. Thomas: Central records indicate that spend on headed paper in each of the last five calendar years is as follows (costs include some of the Department's agencies and delivery partners and include news release paper):
| Total £ (excluding VAT) | Cost per sheet (pence) | |
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