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10 July 2008 : Column 1732W—continued
Small Businesses: Postal Services
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the number of items of mail posted by (a) large companies, (b) domestic consumers and (c) small and medium-sized enterprises in the most recent period for which figures are available; and what assessment he has made of the effects of the introduction of market competition in the postal service on each category of user. [214141]
Mr. McFadden: In recognition of the changes that where taking place in the postal market, which include Royal Mail letter volumes falling by 2.1 per cent. in 2006-07 followed by a 3.2 per cent. fall in the mail volumes handled by Royal Mail in 2007-08, the Secretary of State announced an Independent Review of the Postal Sector on 17 December 2007. The review is looking at the impact of competition on all consumers (and Royal Mail and other postal operators), future trends in the market and how to maintain the universal postal service. The review published its “Initial Response to Evidence” on 6 May. The review is now considering possible solutions to the issues identified in its paper and will be reporting to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State later in the year.
Temporary Employment
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what representations he has received on the law on temporary and agency workers from representatives of the recruitment industry in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [215785]
Mr. McFadden: BERR officials are in regular contact with representatives of the recruitment industry and have received a number of representations on the law regarding temporary and agency workers. Most recently, BERR has received representations from the industry with regard to the recent political agreement on the EU agency workers directive.
I have had a number of meetings with representatives from the recruitment industry. Most recently I met industry representatives at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's (REC) One In A Million Awards annual event last month where I gave the keynote speech.
Trade Unions: Elections
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what method was used to compile the list of approved suppliers of electoral management services to the trades union sector in the Trade Union Ballots and Elections (Independent Scrutineer Qualifications) Order 1993 (Amendment) Order 2002; how regularly the list is reviewed; and what plans he has to review the order. [216977]
Mr. McFadden: The list was drawn up following a public competition, where applicants were interviewed and assessed against a set of published criteria. There are no statutory time limits for reviewing the lists. The last review took place about nine years after the preceding one. We have no immediate plans to undertake a further review.
Northern Ireland
Departmental Aviation
Mr. Maude:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many individual domestic air flights were undertaken within Great Britain by
representatives of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in the most recent year for which figures are available; and at what cost. [215560]
Mr. Woodward: The following table shows the number and cost of domestic air flights within Great Britain from April 2007 to March 2008 by (a) the Department (b) agencies.
| Number of flights | Total cost of flights (£) | |
Departmental Buildings
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much his Department spent on (a) new capital investment and (b) refurbishment of property in each of the last 10 years, broken down by project. [212872]
Mr. Woodward: The information is as follows:
There has been no expenditure by the Department, excluding its Agencies and NDPBs, on the purchase of buildings within the last 10 years.
The NIO does not record expenditure under the specific heading of refurbishment, and so to provide this information could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Sick Pay
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much sick pay to staff in his Department cost in the last five years for which figures are available. [212006]
Mr. Woodward: The NIO maintains an occupational sick pay scheme. It is not possible to isolate these costs from other pay costs without incurring disproportionate cost.
Driving Offences: Sentencing
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the average sentence handed down by courts in Northern Ireland was for people convicted of motoring offences that resulted in a fatality in each of the last three years. [215008]
Paul Goggins: The following table gives the number sentenced to immediate custody and the average custodial sentence length (in months) for motoring offences causing death.
Data cover the calendar years 2004 to 2006 (the latest available years) and are collated on the principal offence rule; so only the most serious offence with which an offender is charged is included.
| Number sentenced to immediate custody and average custodial sentence length (in months) for motoring offences causing death 2004 - 06 | ||
| Number sentenced to immediate custody | Average custodial sentence length (months) | |
Fuels: Prices
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the effect of the rising cost of fuel on front line police services; and if he will make good any shortfall of funds allocated for fuel. [215502]
Paul Goggins: Budgets will be closely monitored in order to ensure that pressures are addressed at an early stage. The rising cost of fuel will not affect the provision of front line police services.
Morning Star
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many copies of the Morning Star publication his Department and each of its agencies subscribes to each week; and at what cost. [215658]
Mr. Woodward: The Northern Ireland Office and its agencies do not subscribe to the Morning Star publication.
Prisons: Telephones
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what tariffs apply to telephone calls made by prisoners in each prison in Northern Ireland. [216817]
Paul Goggins: National calls are charged at a minimum fee of 10p, allowing 55 seconds, followed by 1p for every further 5.5 seconds (11p per minute) in all establishments. Calls to UK mobiles cost between 37.5 and 63p per minute depending on the time of day the call is made.
Social Security Benefits: Fraud
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Northern Ireland have been prosecuted for benefit fraud on (a) more than one occasion and (b) more than two occasions in each of the last five years. [215003]
Paul Goggins: Data relating to prosecutions for benefit fraud in Northern Ireland are held by the Department of Social Development and information should be requested from that Department.
Leader of the House
Members: Allowances
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Leader of the House whether the Government will (a) provide evidence to and (b) co-operate with any inquiry undertaken by the Committee on Standards in Public Life into hon. Members' allowances. [218009]
Helen Goodman: The Committee on Standards in Public Life have not announced any such inquiry. The Government will consider all requests for evidence when they are received.
Members: Pay
Harry Cohen: To ask the Leader of the House how much resettlement grant would be payable to each hon. Member if he or she left the House in (a) May 2010 and (b) May 2014 calculated on current salary levels under the terms of (i) the current resettlement grant scheme and (ii) the resettlement grant scheme proposed by the Members Estimate Committee in recommendation 15 in its Third Report of Session 2007-08 HC 578-I. [217173]
Ms Harman: The House agreed on 3 July 2008 to recommendation 15 of the Members Estimate Committee report (HC578). The intention is that from the general election after next the calculation of the amount of resettlement grant payable to hon. Members will alter to that set out in paragraph 252 of the report. Eligibility for the grant will remain as now.
The maximum resettlement grant of 100 per cent. of salary is currently payable to those aged between 55 and 64 with at least 15 years continuous service in the House. From the general election after next the maximum will be payable to those aged between 50 and 54 with at least 17 years service.
The overall change to the basis of the calculation is broadly cost neutral.
To provide information on all individual Members on the basis requested could be done only at disproportionate cost.
House of Commons Commission
Internet
Jo Swinson: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission (1) what monitoring checks are in place to prevent search results on the parliament.uk website directing users to subscriber-only content; [217568]
(2) whether the parliament.uk website has been assessed to ensure that search results do not direct users to subscriber-only content. [217569]
Nick Harvey:
The purpose of the parliamentary website is to inform the public of the work and role of Parliament and virtually all the material available on the site is content created by Parliament. However, in response to feedback from the public, the House also subscribes to two external services that add value for
users of the site. These services provide a facility whereby members of the public can find out who their MP is by entering their postcode, obtain details of how to contact their Member, a link to their Member's website, where one is available, and a link to published biographical reference information about their Member. These services have proved very popular with over 650,000 searches carried out in 2007-08.
On 24 June a fault was detected by a member of the public who, when searching the site, was misdirected to the supplier's subscription information page rather than to the appropriate biographical reference data. This was the result of a technical error. The supplier was notified immediately and fixed the fault. Measures have since been put in place to prevent any recurrence of this problem in the future.
The website's search engine is configured only to index content on:
and its associated sub-sites so no external content will be included in search results, other than the services described above. As a result of this incident, daily checks have been put in place to ensure that the information services on the website provided by third parties are operating correctly.
Scotland
Departmental Aviation
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many individual domestic air flights were undertaken within Great Britain by representatives of his Department in the most recent year for which figures are available; and at what cost. [215559]
David Cairns: There were 546 individual domestic flights at a cost of £83,253 in 2007-08.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was claimed in reimbursable expenses by special advisers in his Department in each of the last 10 years. [215222]
David Cairns: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. Direct payments to special advisers were:
| £ | |
Internet
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had with telecommunication service providers on the upgrading of internet services to Scottish island communities; and what recent representations his Department has made to (a) BT and (b) other telecommunication service providers in Scotland on this matter. [217159]
David Cairns: I have been involved in discussions with my ministerial colleagues on a number of matters concerned with digital technologies and broadband availability in Scotland; however, broadband policy is a devolved matter, and as such lies with the Scottish Executive to take forward upgrading internet services to island communities.
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