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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
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:
1st—Inspector John Clucas, Lancashire Constabulary
2nd—DC Andrew Tomlinson, Metropolitan Police Service, and Sgt Ian Robertson, Metropolitan Police Service, (joint 2nd prize)
3rd—DS John McKee, Thames Valley Police.
1st—Chief Inspector Steve Radcliffe, Gloucestershire Constabulary
2nd—Inspector John Clucas, Lancashire Constabulary
3rd—David Kerr, Greater Manchester Police.
1st—Michael Lombardelli, Metropolitan Police Service
2nd—Inspector John Clucas, Lancashire Constabulary
3rd—Mark Crampton, Hertfordshire Constabulary
Special Award: Dorset Police.
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.
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 | |
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.
| Campaign | Total media (£) | |
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
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 |
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 |
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