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30 Apr 2008 : Column 527W—continued
Disabled
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what targets his Department has set in relation to its employment of people with disabilities over the next five years. [199045]
Gillian Merron: The Cabinet Office is currently drawing up a new Diversity Strategy from 2008 to 2011 that will build on the achievements and lessons learnt from the existing Government-wide “10 Point Plan for a Diverse Civil Service”. The Department for International Development (DFID) will draw on this strategy for its own targets for employing people with disabilities in grades below the senior civil service (SCS) from 2008 to 2011.
Guatemala: Overseas Aid
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions he has had with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on international development issues in relation to her recent visit to Guatemala. [202710]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: Discussions about the visit by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to Guatemala between 16 and 19 of April have taken place between officials in the Department for International Development (DFID) and the FCO. The visit enabled my hon. Friend to see how projects funded by the Global Conflict Prevention Pool are contributing to conflict prevention along the Belize-Guatemala border. Specifically, she was able to visit the office of the Organisation of American States, which is monitoring the disputed border area, and contributing to the resolution of local problems in the area.
Overseas Aid: Politics and Government
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department spent on projects promoting democracy in developing countries in each of the last five years. [197259]
Gillian Merron: The Department for International Development (DFID) provides funding to promote democracy through civil society, the justice sector, elections, Parliaments, as well as related activities to improve the accountability of Government officials to citizens more generally. DFID does not measure expenditure on democracy projects specifically.
Most, but not all, of the expenditure on democracy comes under the category of ‘governance’. Last year we published a report detailing DFID’s work on governance titled “Governance, Development and Democratic Politics”.
As follows is a table showing expenditure on governance for the last five years.
| DFID bilateral expenditure, 2002-03 to 2006-07 | |||||
| £ million | |||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
Children, Schools and Families
Construction
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many construction projects his Department undertook in each of the last three years for which the capital cost was greater than £1.5 million; and what the combined value of these projects was. [202541]
Jim Knight: The Department does not undertake construction projects directly itself. Rather it allocates capital funding to a variety of bodies, usually local authorities, who procure and manage the projects. The capital allocations by programme for this Department for the last three years are included in the Departmental Annual Report (DAR) Table 8.2 and Annex C refers.
| Academy projects started/undertaken in each of the last three years: | |
| Number | |
The estimated capital cost of each of these projects exceeds £1.5 million.
The combined value of these projects (i.e. the total estimated capital costs including sponsorship) is £809.5 million.
The number of 16-19 capital projects approved over the past two years with a project cost of more than £1.5 million:
| £ million | ||
| Number of projects | Total c ost | |
Two separate sources of funding (from Schools and Further Education) were brought together to create the 16-19 capital fund from 2006-07.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many construction projects his Department undertook in each of the last three years for which the capital cost was less than £1.5 million; and what the combined value of these projects was. [202542]
Jim Knight: The Department does not undertake construction projects directly itself. Rather it allocates capital funding to a variety of bodies, usually local authorities, who procure and manage the projects. The capital allocations by programme for this Department for the last three years are included in the Departmental Annual Report (DAR) Table 8.2 and Annex C refers.
The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Cycling
Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether (a) his Department and (b) his Department's non-departmental public bodies provide (i) tax-free benefits and (ii) other allowances for their staff to purchase bicycles under the Cycle to Work scheme; and if he will make a statement. [197628]
Kevin Brennan: The Department does not offer a cycle to work scheme to its employees. However, my Department does offer interest-free, advance of salary loan to purchase a bicycle for those employees who want them. The Department does encourage staff to use sustainable forms of travel wherever possible including cycling to work as well as using public transport.
Non-departmental public bodies are responsible for their own policies.
Departmental Consultation Papers
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) white papers, (b) bills, (c) green papers and (d) other consultation papers have been issued by his Department and its predecessors since 1997. [200997]
Kevin Brennan: The Department for Children, Schools and Families and its predecessors (Department for Education and Employment, and Department for Education and Skills) have issued the following since 1997:
(a) 64 Green and White Papers (our records do not distinguish between the two categories of paper);
(b ) 16 Bills;
(c) See (a) above;
(d) 364 consultation papers and a further nine calls for evidence.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2008, Official Report, column 105W, on departmental data protection, if he will include information assurance data on data loss incidents in previous years in his Department’s next annual report. [199181]
Kevin Brennan: 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, and the written ministerial statement made my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 17 December 2007, Official Report, column 98WS. The review by the Cabinet Secretary and security experts is looking at procedures within Departments and agencies for the storage and use of data.
The interim report of 17 December 2007 committed to put in place a programme to examine and improve data handling procedures. An update on this commitment will be included in the final report, expected in spring 2008, and this report will detail the information to be included by Departments on data loss in their annual reports.
Departmental ICT
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2008, Official Report, column 1532W, on departmental ICT, how many of the missing or stolen (a) laptops, (b) mobile telephones and (c) personal digital assistants have been replaced by his Department; and at what cost. [202505]
Kevin Brennan: The information as requested is not readily available centrally within the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). To respond fully would involve an information collection exercise which would exceed the recommended disproportionate cost threshold.
DCSF does not keep central records of whether staff were immediately issued with a replacement mobile telephone, personal digital assistant or laptop computer following theft or loss.
Departmental Pensions
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the cash equivalent transfer value is of the public sector pensions of the 10 highest paid members of staff in his Department and its executive agencies; and if he will make a statement. [200730]
Kevin Brennan:
The Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) of the pensions of the 10 highest paid departmental employees at 31 March 2008 was £4,492,806.10. This includes the CETV of some of the members of the senior management team named in the
Department’s Remuneration Report, which is published annually and which is in the public domain.
The Department has no executive agencies.
Departmental Temporary Employment
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many full-time posts were filled on a temporary basis for a period in excess of six months in his Department in each year since its establishment. [200658]
Kevin Brennan: Since the formation of my Department as part of the 28 June 2007 Machinery of Government changes, 131 posts have been filled by staff on temporary promotion for a period in excess of six months. Additionally there were 17 temporary staff employed for a period in excess of six months. These are the latest figures available and apply up to 31 March 2008. At that date my Department had 2,793 staff (2,643.4 full-time equivalents).
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2008, Official Report, column 912W, on departmental translation services, how much was spent on translation services into (a) Welsh and (b) other languages in (i) 2003-04, (ii) 2004-05, (iii) 2005-06, (iv) 2006-07 and (v) 2007-08 to date. [197553]
Kevin Brennan: The details of expenditure on translation services incurred by the Department provided in the answer of 17 March 2008 was extracted from the Departments Integrated Financial Information System and is recorded under a general heading of Translation Fees. To extract the specific financial data requested would involve disproportionate cost.
Departmental Written Questions
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many days it took on average to answer written parliamentary questions tabled by each hon. Member for answer by him in the last six months. [201753]
Kevin Brennan: The Department’s IT systems are currently unable to provide the full breakdown requested. Since the beginning of the 2007-08 Session and up to 31 March 2008 the Department has received a total of 2,674 PQs, 416 named day and 2,258 ordinary written PQs. The manual check of all named day PQs carried out to monitor the timeliness of replies for the months of November 2007 to March 2008 are shown in the following table.
| Total named day PQs received | Total named day PQs answered on time (percentage) | |
Education: Young Offenders
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what plans he has to ensure that all 16 and 17 year olds in (a) prison and (b) on community service are in accredited education and training; and if he will make a statement. [202334]
Beverley Hughes: The availability of good quality and consistent education and training for young offenders in prison and in the community is critical to improving life outcomes and reducing re-offending rates. We outlined our plans to improve education and training for young offenders within the Children’s Plan, published December last year. We are currently consulting on proposals for new funding and planning arrangements for pre and post-19 learning which includes plans for local authorities to lead on education and training for young people in juvenile custody. We will also include wider proposals to improve education and training for young offenders within the strategy on Youth Crime which we will be publishing later this year. This will include plans linking offender education more strongly with the 14 to 19 curriculum, quality improvement and work force development in order to ensure that young offenders have access to provision and qualifications which are consistent with mainstream education and training and which meets their personal needs.
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