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30 Apr 2008 : Column 555W—continued
For members of ‘partnership’, the employer pays a basic contribution of between 3 per cent. and 12.5 per cent. (depending on the age of the member) into a stakeholder pension product and will match the member’s contribution up to a limit of 3 per cent. Employers also
contribute a further 0.8 per cent. of pensionable salary to cover the cost of risk benefit cover (death in service and ill health retirement).
Details of the civil service pension arrangements can be found on the civil service pensions website at:
Civil Nuclear Constabulary: Arrests
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many arrests the Civil Nuclear Constabulary have made since 22nd July 2004, broken down by offence; and of those which resulted in a criminal conviction, for which criminal offence each individual was convicted. [201476]
Malcolm Wicks: The CNC was established on 1 April 2005, taking over responsibilities from its predecessor, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary. Since 22 July 2004 the two forces have conducted 13 arrests where a criminal investigation has been undertaken. The following table provides the associated data:
Civil Nuclear Constabulary: Firearms
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform at which locations under the protection of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers are authorised to carry firearms. [201477]
Malcolm Wicks: CNC officers are authorised to carry firearms at any licensed civil nuclear site under their protection, as well as when escorting nuclear material from one location to another.
Civil Nuclear Constabulary: Recruitment
Alan Duncan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many applications to join the Civil Nuclear Constabulary have been rejected because the applicant did not meet
the criteria set out in personnel security policy in the latest period for which figures are available. [201475]
Malcolm Wicks: The Office for Civil Nuclear Security, who have responsibility for vetting CNC applicants, confirm that all applicants met the criteria set out on the personnel security policy. Therefore CNC have not rejected any applications for this reason.
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many applications to join the Civil Nuclear Constabulary in a (a) policing and (b) administrative capacity have been (i) made and (ii) successful since 22nd July 2004. [201515]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 29 April 2008]: The CNC was established on 1 April 2005, therefore the data collated are from this date.
There were 2,929 police applications made, of which 327 were successful, and 1,000 administrative applications, of which 72 were successful.
Community Interest Companies: Pay
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what scrutiny is undertaken of the rates of pay for senior executives of community interest companies to monitor whether such pay is appropriate for the tasks undertaken; and if he will make a statement. [201963]
Mr. Thomas: Every community interest company (CIC) is obliged by section 26 of the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/1788) to disclose certain details about its directors' remuneration as part of its annual community interest company report. The decision as to how much an individual director is paid is a matter for each CIC but the functioning of CICs is overseen by the CIC regulator to whom a copy of the community interest company report is sent.
Any person can report their concerns to the CIC regulator if they consider that the CIC's actions appear to be inconsistent with its aim to benefit the community. This includes concerns about remuneration. The regulator has supervisory powers under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 to maintain confidence in community interest companies. This includes the power, where appropriate, to investigate the affairs of a community interest company.
Competition Commission: Euro RSCG Apex Communications
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what payments the Competition Commission has made to Euro RSCG Apex Communications in each of the last five years; on what dates and for what purpose in each case. [202272]
Mr. Thomas: The Competition Commission made no payments to Euro RSCG Apex Communications before October 2007. It has since made four payments totalling £11,867.50 for communications advice and support.
Debt Collection: Licensing
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will hold discussions with the Office of Fair Trading about the issuing of consumer credit licences to debt collecting companies and ensuring that recipients of licences have a responsibility to check properly the history of those individuals passed onto them to prevent older people who have faced identity theft from being caused distress. [202445]
Mr. Thomas: We have recently given the Office of Fair Trading wider ranging powers to tackle debt collectors. Debt collectors are now subject to greater scrutiny at the licence application stage and greater monitoring throughout the life of the licence. Furthermore, as part of a recently completed investigation, the OFT has issued warnings to 13 companies telling them that they need to take steps to improve their debt collection practices. In particular, the companies involved have specifically been asked to review their policies and procedures for tracing debtors, including keeping client data up to date and maintaining its accuracy.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 25 March 2008, Official Report, column 75W, 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. [199179]
Mr. Thomas: 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 shortly, and this report will detail the information to be included by departments on data loss in their annual reports.
Departmental Energy
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps his Department has taken to reduce its energy consumption in the last 12 months; and what his Department’s expenditure on energy was in (a) the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available and (b) the immediately preceding 12 months. [201742]
Mr. Thomas:
My Department has recently undertaken energy audits across its estate. Projects identified to reduce carbon emissions include using lighting controls more effectively and piloting the use of light emitting diode (LED) technology. Staff are encouraged to use video conferencing and to consider how they travel to
meetings. Bike loans are also available to staff and environmental awareness campaigns are regularly conducted.
My Department’s HQ estate expenditure on energy for the last two reportable years was as follows:
| £ | |
Departmental Legislation
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what criminal offences have been abolished by primary legislation sponsored by his Department and its predecessors since May 1997. [198287]
Mr. Thomas: This information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Pensions
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform 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. [200705]
Mr. Thomas:
This information is set out in the Remuneration Report, which is part of the Department’s
resource accounts. The Department’s combined annual departmental report and resource accounts are published in July.
Departmental Public Participation
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many public consultations were held by his Department and its predecessor in each of the last three years; and how many respondents took part in each consultation. [198639]
Mr. McFadden: BERR makes extensive use of both formal and informal consultation in developing policy. DTI conducted 71 formal written consultations in 2005, 52 in 2006 and DT and BERR conducted 51 in 2007. The number of responses to these questions varied greatly, from under 10 in the case of our consultation published on 6 September 2007 on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment to several thousand in the case of our consultation published on 18 June 2007 on Export Control Legislation. Providing precise response numbers for each of the consultations could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Sick Leave
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many of his Department’s staff took more than (a) five, (b) 10, (c) 15, (d) 20, (e) 25, (f) 30, (g) 35 and (h) 40 days leave due to stress in each of the last five years, broken down by pay grade. [198977]
Mr. Thomas: The number of BERR staff who have taken leave due to stress in the last five years, broken down by pay grade is contained in the following tables.
| 2003 | ||||||||||
| Range | Less than 5 | 6 to 10 | 11 to 15 | 16 to 20 | 21 to 25 | 26 to 30 | 31 to 35 | 36 to 40 | More than 40 | 2003 total |
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