Written Answers to Questions
Monday 18 February 2008
Scotland
Departmental Advertising
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of his Department’s expenditure was on advertising in each of the last 10 years. [183001]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. The office provides support services to the Office of the Advocate-General (OAG); prior to 2003-04, separate records were not maintained of the advertising costs for the two offices. The percentage of expenditure spent on advertising is as follows:
| Percentage of overall budget spent on advertising | |
Departmental Aviation
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what (a) first-class and (b) other flights he has taken since 28 June 2007; and on each occasion (i) how many staff travelled with him and (ii) what the cost of the travel was. [182883]
Des Browne: The Scotland Office does not separately record the class of flight undertaken.
Since 28 June 2007 I have taken the following flights as Secretary of State for Scotland:
| Date | Journey | Cost (£) |
No officials accompanied me on these flights.
All travel is undertaken in accordance with the Civil Service Management Code and the Ministerial Code, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the
House. Information relating to overseas travel by Ministers is published on an annual basis; the 2006-07 edition was published on 25 July 2007 and is also available in the Library of the House.
Departmental Databases
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what databases are (a) owned and (b) maintained by his Department. [185409]
Departmental ICT
Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many (a) male and (b) female members of staff in his Department were issued with personal digital assistants in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement. [181365]
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many (a) mobile telephones, (b) personal digital assistants and (c) laptop computers issued to departmental staff were reported (i) lost, (ii) missing and (iii) stolen in each year since 2001. [184339]
David Cairns: The following items were reported as being lost since 2001:
| Item | |
No items have been reported missing or stolen.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the special advisers employed in his Department and its predecessor since 6 May 1997; and what the (a) start and (b) end date of employment was in each case. [184375]
David Cairns: I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave to the hon. Member for Brent, East (Sarah Teather) on 10 January 2008, Official Report, column 692W.
Departmental Training
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the annual expenditure on training and development by his Department was in each of the last two financial years; and what the planned expenditure is for 2007-08. [185480]
David Cairns: The staff in the Scotland Office are on loan from the Scottish Executive or the Ministry of Justice; both Departments provide access to training and development opportunities. The office incurred direct expenditure of £13,370 and £13,969 in 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively; the estimated expenditure for 2007-08 is £23,000.
Departmental Travel
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department spent on travel (a) within and (b) outside the UK for officials in each of the last 10 years; and what percentage of his Department’s overall expenditure was spent on such travel in each such year. [181529]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. The Office provides support services to the Office of the Advocate-General (OAG); prior to 2003-04, separate records were not maintained of the travel costs for the two offices. Expenditure was as follows:
| Total officials travel cost UK (£000) | Percentage of total expenditure | Total officials travel cost outwith UK (£000) | Percentage of total expenditure | |
All travel is undertaken in accordance with the Civil Service Management Code and the Ministerial Code, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many overseas visits by officials in his Department took place in each of the last 10 years; which countries were visited; and how much was spent on such visits in each such year. [181596]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. The office provides support services to the Office of the Advocate-General (OAG); prior to 2003-04, separate records were not maintained of the travel costs for the two offices. The office does not hold records showing the number of journeys or the countries visited; however, the cost of such visits was as follows:
| Total officials travel cost outwith UK (£000) | |
All travel is undertaken in accordance with the Civil Service Management Code and the Ministerial Code, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
Departmental Vehicles
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the annual expenditure on vehicles by his Department was in the last 12 months; and what the planned expenditure is for 2007-08. [185479]
Official Engagements
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what his official engagements were in December 2007. [182880]
Des Browne:
Throughout the period 1 to 31 December, I had various meetings in London and Scotland, including with ministerial colleagues and officials from the MOD and Scotland Office. On 1 December, I visited the Longannet power station in Alloa and participated in the Scottish Interfaith Week Come and Play the Diversity Game event in Edinburgh. On 3 December, I answered oral Defence questions in the House of Commons. On 4 December, I met with service families about the Board of Inquiry findings into the crash of the RAF Nimrod XV230 before attending the House to make a statement about the same. On 5 December, I gave oral evidence to the AFPRB and in the evening I attended a Sailor, Soldier, Airmen and Families Association carol service at the Guards' Chapel, Wellington barracks. On 6 December, I met representatives from the services charity ‘Forward Edge Battle Area’. Between December 7 and December 10, I was overseas visiting service personnel in Afghanistan. On 11 December and 12 December, I had meetings with several families of troops who died on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. On 12 December I attended the Scotch Whisky Association reception in Dover House. On 14 and 15 December, I hosted a meeting in Edinburgh for the Defence and Foreign Ministers of nations contributing troops to NATO-led operations in southern Afghanistan. On 17 December I discussed the outcome of the Edinburgh meeting with the NATO Secretary-General and also met Ross Kemp to discuss his recent visit to Afghanistan. On 18 December I met representatives from Serco Defence, Science and Technology. On 19 December I held a video conference with representatives of the independent panel
set up by the Canadian government to review their future role in Afghanistan (the Manley Panel). On 20 December, I took the salute at a passing out parade at the Army Training Regiment in Bassingbourn.
Sunbeds
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had with the Scottish Executive on regulation of (a) sunbed salons and (b) unsupervised sunbed salons and the use of each by persons under 18 years of age. [185445]
David Cairns: No such discussions have taken place.
Regulation of the safety of UV tanning equipment provided in sunbed salons is reserved to the UK Government. The Department of Health has recently launched its Cancer Reform Strategy, which notes that the Department will be reviewing the options for regulation of the industry through consultation with stakeholders.
Wales
Legislation
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many members of staff at the Wales Office work mainly on the processing of requests for legislative competence orders. [184995]
Mr. Paul Murphy: Dealing with how legislation at Westminster should apply to Wales is and always has been a core activity of the Wales Office.
Many of the office’s 55 staff will work on it from time to time. We do not assess staff effort on requests for legislative competence orders separately from other legislation which the Wales Office handles, such as England and Wales legislation, Wales only Bills, and other methods of conferring measure making powers on the Assembly under the Government of Wales Act 2006.
The office has re-structured to deal with new work flowing from the 2006 Act. It is still recruiting, but will have 10 people in branches dedicated to legislative business, with as many again likely to spend a varying but significant proportion of their time on it, alongside other activities.
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