Previous Section Index Home Page

31 Mar 2008 : Column 601W—continued

British Crime Survey

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there are plans to transfer responsibility for the British Crime Survey to the Office for National Statistics, as recommended by the Statistics Commission. [193578]

Jacqui Smith: There are currently no plans to transfer responsibility for the British Crime Survey to the Office for National Statistics.

The Statistics Commission recommendation was part of a package of proposals to increase public trust
31 Mar 2008 : Column 602W
in Home Office crime statistics and address any perception that there was a lack of independence in their production. The same issues were considered by the independent Smith review which included cross-party nominees. The Smith review concluded the Home Office should retain responsibility for the survey but recommended some changes to the governance of crime statistics.

Since the recommendation by the Statistics Commission was made, more fundamental changes to the governance of official statistics are taking place. The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, which comes into effect on 1 April 2008, provides a new statutory framework to ensure the independence of National Statistics of which the British Crime Survey is a part.

To further strengthen these arrangements, on the same date within the Home Office, responsibility for the production of statistics from the British Crime Survey and other statistics will transfer to the Chief Statistician who has direct professional accountability to the National Statistician for the political independence of such statistics.

Bureaucracy

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who the winners of the Reducing Bureaucracy Awards Scheme were in each month since its inception. [176056]

Mr. McNulty: The Reducing Bureaucracy Awards Scheme was launched in 2003. The awards were held annually and were presented at the Police Federation annual conference. The winners and runners-up for each year are listed as follows:

2004

2005

2006

Departmental Accountancy

Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to her answer of 18 March 2008, Official Report, column 930W, on accountancy, how many distinct budget lines relating to her Department’s expenditure and forecasts were reported to the Treasury in each month of 2007-08. [196890]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 26 March 2008]: The following table provides the number of data lines the Home Office uploaded on to HM Treasury’s Combined On-line Information System (COINS), per month, for financial year 2007-08.


31 Mar 2008 : Column 603W

The change in the number of data lines from June to July is a result of a machinery of government change, the transfer of the National Offender Management Service and the Office of Criminal Justice Reform from the Home Office to the Ministry of Justice.

The data on COINS is the source of the numbers found in the tables that are published in both the departmental report and the supply estimates.

Number

April

591

May

600

June

610

July

370

August

372

September

385

October

385

November

385

December

385

January

385


Departmental Advertising

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which of her Department's initiatives have been advertised to the public in each of the last 10 years; and what the cost of each such campaign was. [192231]

Mr. Byrne: The following table outlines Home Office advertising spend over the last five years, broken down by year and by policy area.


31 Mar 2008 : Column 604W
Campaign Total media (£)

2002-03

Child Protection on the Internet

705,194

Drug Misuse

19,878

Firearms Amnesty

506,283

Police Recruitment

4,222,741

Tackling Drug Abuse

38,014

Vehicle Crime Reduction

4,362,887

2003-04

Child Protection on the Internet

736,878

Domestic Violence

805,140

Drugs (Including FRANK campaign)

2,184,499

Police Recruitment

400,608

Vehicle Crime Reduction

4,296,931

Youth Offenders On Line

38,014

2004-05

Acquisitive Crime Reduction

6,100,808

Antisocial Behaviour

366,553

Child Protection on the Internet

290,225

Clean Up Campaign 2005-06

25,722

Domestic Violence

432,263

Drugs (Including FRANK campaign)

2,049,593

Gun Crime

162,042

Police Specials Recruitment

1,885,559

2005-06

Acquisitive Crime Reduction

4,123,311

Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign

92,204

Antisocial Behaviour

396,475

Child Protection on the Internet

862,229

Clean Up Campaign

39,819

Crime Stoppers

82,182

Domestic Violence

534,587

Drugs (Including FRANK campaign)

1,524,701

Park Mark Car Parks

94,260

Police Specials Recruitment

1,389,166

Rape

66,153

2006-07

Acquisitive Crime Reduction

3,266,192

Alcohol Binge drinking

1,975,005

Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign

231,713

Child Protection on the Internet

46,824

Domestic Violence

800,384

Drugs (Including FRANK campaign)

3,467,021

Immigration

790,860

Knife Amnesty

137,083

PCSO Recruitment

1,748,743

Rape

280,022

Single Non Emergency Number

780,325

Stop and Search

134.501


Departmental Consultants

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) consultants and (b) agency staff were employed by her Department at the end of (i) 2004-05, (ii) 2005-06 and (iii) 2006-07 financial year. [192504]

Mr. Byrne: The Department does not hold a central record of the number of (a) consultants and (b) agency staff deployed, and to assemble the requested details from individual contract records would incur disproportionate cost.

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department spent on (a) consultants and (b) agency staff in the financial years (i) 2004-05, (ii) 2005-06 and (iii) 2006-07. [192620]

Mr. Byrne: The Home Department engages consultancy firms to support and augment civil servants in the delivery of a specific range of work, including large IT development programmes and, where more cost effective, longer term service delivery programmes.

The Department’s expenditure on these services is allocated across a wide range of firms, from small, specialist companies with niche expertise and few employees, to global multinational organizations offering a broad spectrum and substantial depth of consultancy expertise.

The Department awards contracts in competition according to the EU Procurement Directives based on value for money. The Department uses OGC framework agreements where appropriate. The use of external consultants provides the Department with
31 Mar 2008 : Column 605W
specialist knowledge, skill, capacity and technical expertise that would not otherwise be available. Some expenditure is on consultants to whom we have outsourced services, such as IT.

Expenditure on (a) consultants in the financial years (i) 2004-05, (ii) 2005-06 and (iii) 2006-07 is as follows:

£
Financial year HO headquarters IPS CRB Total spend

2004-05

55,991,869

4,486,183

729,000

61 ,207,052

2005-06

128,000,000

10,912,741

50,462

138,963,203

2006-07

118,000,000

29,870,522

144,235

148,014,757


The Home Department uses a variety of externally resourced staff to fill roles in the Department that cannot readily be filled by permanent staff. The figures given are drawn from our financial reporting systems and represent various categories of agency and other externally resourced staff, but exclude consultancy services.

Expenditure on (b) agency staff in the financial years (i) 2004-05, (ii) 2005-06 and (iii) 2006-07 is as follows:

£
Financial year HO headquarters IPS CRB Total spend

2004-05

37,000,000

5,626,207

703,756

43,329,963

2005-06

38,000,000

7,746,589

354,756

46,101,345

2006-07

40,000,000

26,612,732

301 ,998

66,914,730


Next Section Index Home Page