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22 Apr 2008 : Column 1954W—continued
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills which external consultants have been contracted by his Department since it was established for contracts in excess of £50,000; and what the work contracted for was. [199929]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was created as a result of Machinery of Government changes in June 2007. Since this time the Department has spent in excess of £50,000 on the following:
| £ | |
To investigate specific contracts in excess of £50,000 would be at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Electricity
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much his Department spent on electricity in each month in the latest 12 month period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [196989]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was created as a result of machinery of government changes in June 2007. Since this time, the Department has spent on electricity, a total of £32,023.54. This can be split up further into £31,816.23 to the end of November and £207.31 in January. DCSF provides DIUS with share services which include the provision of office space, an element of this expenditure relates to electricity, but split obtainable only at a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much was spent on the most recent redesign and implementation of his Departmental website. [200147]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was formed on 28 June 2007, following the machinery of Government changes. Costs for the design and implementation of the departmental website to date are projected to be in the region of £85,000.
Departmental Legislation
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what criminal offences have been created by primary legislation sponsored by his Department since July 2007. [198316]
Mr. Lammy: Since July 2007, there has been one Act sponsored by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills—the Further Education and Training Act 2007. This Act did not create any criminal offences.
Departmental Manpower
Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many (a) permanent civil service posts, (b) permanent non-civil service posts and (c) temporary or agency workers in employment in his Department there were in each month since May 2005. [199548]
Mr. Lammy: The Department was created by Machinery of Government changes in July 2007 from elements of the then Department of Trade and Industry and Department for Education and Skills. For this reason—and until spring 2009—we are continuing to operate from two Human Resource databases and two separate payrolls for all employees.
As regards part (a) of the question, we are able to provide quarterly ‘snapshots’ of information about the number of permanent civil servant posts, as follows:
| Number | |
(b) There are no permanent non-civil servant posts in the Department; and
(c) records of temporary or agency workers are not held centrally and to collect this information would involve disproportionate cost.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what the 10 highest salaries paid by his Department to non-civil servants are. [199920]
Mr. Lammy: The Department was set up as part of the Machinery of Government changes on 28 June 2007. In the subsequent period, as part of the process of establishing the new Department, it has been necessary on occasion to engage the services of contractors, consultants and temporary staff who are usually not employees and are not on the DIUS payroll. Aside from this situation, the non-civil servants on the payroll are Ministers whose salaries are already in the public domain.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Hayes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what the 10 highest items of expenditure on purchases by his Department
were in the last 12 months for which are available. [200039]
Mr. Lammy: We are unable to provide a response to this question as it does not specify sufficiently the basis on which these data are sought.
To illustrate, the question does not state if it relates to running or capital costs or both, and if it relates to individual contracts or suppliers.
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much translation of documents produced by his Department in the last 12 months has cost, broken down by language. [199926]
Mr. Lammy: The Department has made payments for translation services to the value of £11,094.25 during the financial year 2007-08. To investigate as to whether these services were provided for the translation of documents and into language category would be at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Written Questions
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many written questions to his Department had not received an answer as at 25 February 2008 for (a) between two and four, (b) between four and six, (c) between six and eight and (d) more than eight weeks; and how many in each category were tabled for named day answer. [193390]
Mr. Lammy: The Department received a total number of 889 PQs during the period covering 6 November 2007 to 25 February 2008. According to our records, the breakdown of questions, at least two weeks old, that had not received an answer on 25 February 2008 was as shown in the following table.
| (a) Two to four weeks | (b) Four to six weeks | (c) Six to eight weeks | (d) More than eight weeks | Total | |
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what progress his Department has made on its parliamentary question tracking system to record whether named day questions are provided with a substantive answer on the due day since November 2007. [199993]
Mr. Lammy: Although parts of the Department's PQ tracking system have been upgraded there is still some outstanding work to be completed on the parts of the system that provide management information reports. In the interim, the parliamentary team are maintaining a manual check on all named day questions to monitor the timeliness of replies.
Learning and Skills Councils: North West
Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what plans he has to increase the revenue budget of the Learning and Skills Council for the North West to meet objectives to reduce the number of young people not in education, training or employment. [199419]
Mr. Lammy: Progress is being made in reducing the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). Latest figures show that 206,200 (10.3 per cent.) 16 to 18-year-olds were NEET at the end of 2006, a reduction from 217,000 (10.9 per cent.) at the end of 2005.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) makes decisions about allocations of funding to specific areas based on strategic discussions with local partners about the range of provision that is needed.
The overall north-west NEET budget is increasing, with the direct NEET programme funding increasing from £3.75 million in 2007-08 to £3.95 million in 2008-09, including a pilot programme for KS4 pupils at risk of disengagement, and funding for a parents to be programme.
There are also other sources of funds including from the LSC and also local authorities that directly or indirectly support young people who are NEET.
Official Gifts
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what use his Department makes of items from the Donated Asset Reserve; and if he will make a statement. [199923]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was created as a result of Machinery of Government changes in June 2007. The Department does not have any items held within a Donated Asset Reserve.
Duchy of Lancaster
Capita
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many employees of Capita plc have been (a) seconded to his Department and (b) appointed to his Department's non departmental public bodies since 1997; to which body each secondment or appointment was made; and for how long each secondment or appointment lasted. [199702]
Phil Hope: There have been no employees of Capita plc seconded to the Cabinet Office since 1997. Currently, no appointees to Cabinet Office non-departmental public bodies are employees of Capita plc. Details of past appointees to Cabinet Office non-departmental public bodies since 1997 and their employment history are not held centrally and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Manpower
Dan Rogerson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many (a) permanent civil service posts, (b) permanent non-civil service posts and (c) temporary or agency workers in employment there were in his Department in each month since May 2005. [199631]
Phil Hope: From latest available figures as at 31 December 2007, there were 1,222 posts (FTE) within the Cabinet Office filled by permanent civil servants. This figure includes permanent Cabinet Office staff and staff on loan from another Government Department.
In addition, there were 182 non-permanent staff (FTE). This figure includes staff on a fixed term or short-term appointment, staff seconded in from outside the civil service, fee-paid staff, agency staff, consultants and contractors.
Departmental Pay
Dan Rogerson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the cost of (a) salaries for permanent Civil Service posts, (b) salaries for permanent non-Civil Service posts and (c) payments to temporary or agency workers in his Department was in each month since May 2005. [199627]
Phil Hope: The information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Total annual costs for the wages and associated employment costs of permanently employed staff, agency staff, Ministers and special advisers are provided in note 9 (Staff numbers and related costs) to the Department's annual report and resource accounts, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.
Departmental Public Participation
Mrs. May: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what (a) surveys, (b) questionnaires and (c) other services were provided by polling companies for his Department in financial year 2007-08, broken down by company. [200018]
Phil Hope: The information requested is not held centrally and is therefore available only at disproportionate cost.
Migration: Statistics
Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether the workplan published by the Interdepartmental Task Force laying out the actions needed to improve the estimates of migration is Government policy. [199299]
Phil Hope: The Government welcome the report of the task force and is fully supportive of efforts to further improve migration data. Governance arrangements have been established by the National Statistician, in consultation with Departments, to ensure work progresses according to agreed work plans and she will be responsible for overseeing delivery.
On 4 February, the Minister for Local Government, John Healey, announced to the House that a cross-government programme would be put in place, driven by senior officials from central Government and the Local Government Association, and led by the National Statistician. This Programme Board of officials will help steer the work and advise on priorities.
A ministerial group will support the National Statistician and help drive forward the changes. This latter group is to be chaired jointly by John Healey, the Minister for Local Government, and Liam Byrne, Home Office Minister of State for Borders and Immigration, for the Government. The UK Statistics Authority will ensure the quality of the statistics that are produced.
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