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14 July 2008 : Column 14W—continued
No records are kept of the amount and value of fish purchased that meet the Marine Stewardship Council's environmental standard for sustainable fishing. However, the current instructions issued to suppliers of fresh and frozen fish expressly stipulate that “all fish supplied must come from approved sustainable sources” and provide specific provenance requirements in the case of cod, haddock and other fish regarded as over-exploited by the Marine Stewardship Council or Marine Conservation Society. Furthermore, the House is currently in the process of letting a new contract for the supply of fish. Both the Marine Stewardship Council and the Seafish Industry Authority had input into the specification of requirements regarding environmental sustainability standards, and the relevant clauses were developed using the toolkit provided by DEFRA under the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative.
Members’ Centre
Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the cost has been of the refurbishment of the e-Library to create a new Members' Centre in Portcullis House; what the cost has been of the new (a) furnishings and (b) technological equipment installed in the new Members' Centre; what the reasons were for the establishment of the new Members' Centre in Portcullis House; and whether a cost benefit analysis was carried out before the new Members' Centre in Portcullis House was commissioned. [217114]
Nick Harvey: The total cost of the refurbishment of the e-Library to create the Members' Centre was £38,100. The furnishings installed in the centre cost £25,900 and the technological equipment cost £12,200. The centre was established as a part of the response to Sir Kevin Tebbit’s review of the management and services of the House. It is intended to help provide a more integrated and responsive service to hon. Members and to their staff across the range of the services provided by House Departments. Benefits were assessed against costs before the centre was commissioned, though no formal cost/benefit analysis was conducted. The extent of the centre's use, and the support it has received from hon. Members and their staff, albeit after just one week of operation, suggests that the centre will fully justify its costs.
Members: Allowances
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Aberdeen (Mr. Doran) North, of 30 June 2005, Official Report, column 546W, on Members’ allowances, (1) how much time hon. Members will be given to examine documents relating to them which are due for disclosure to the public, prior to such disclosure; and whether documents to be scanned may be edited (a) before and (b) after scanning; [218362]
(2) what procedure will be adopted to ensure that when personal details are redacted from hon. Members' documents disclosed to the public by the House authorities the redacted details will be undetectable; [218457]
(3) whether all hard copy documents from which hon. Members' personal details have been redacted will be photocopied again before distribution to any member of the public in order to ensure the integrity of the redaction. [218458]
Nick Harvey: The information requested is as follows.
(1) The exact timetable is still being finalised. However, it is anticipated that Members will have approximately one month to examine documents relating to them, which are due for disclosure to the public, prior to such disclosure. The documents will be edited after scanning.
(2) The scanned documents will be edited using a proven and secure software product, which will remove pages and remove and replace text and images according to the editing scheme before the document is re-saved. The redacted material will not be detectable in the published information.
(3) Only permanently redacted images of original documents will be made available to the public, rather than photocopies of original documents. The integrity of the redaction will be assured as follows:
The original documents will be scanned and retained. At the end of the imaging and editing process there will be three electronic versions of the scanned documents:
(1) An image of the entire original document before editing
(2) An image of the document with the editing marked but with all underlying text readable
(3) A final version for publication with all edited text removed from the image of the document.
Images 1 and 2 will be retained for auditing purposes in the event of any query about the editing and redacting process. Image 3 will be the only version made available to the public.
Members: ICT
Helen Jones: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what steps are being taken to ensure that hon. Members' staff based off the parliamentary estate are offered an equivalent IT service to hon. Members' staff based in the House. [218201]
Nick Harvey: The Administration Committee considered proposals prepared by the Parliamentary ICT (PICT) Directorate in June 2008 for improving support and services to Members and their staff while working away from the Parliamentary Estate, and specifically in their constituency offices. The proposals included:
1. Regionally based engineering services that can provide a face to face response to Members and their staffs' issues more quickly than can be achieved at present.
2. Local areas network (LANs) in constituency offices, including wireless access where feasible, and support of the networks on an ongoing basis.
3. Upgrades to the current broadband services.
While not providing an equivalent level of service for off-site users to that available to Members and their staff based in Westminster, these proposals would provide a much improved level of service. Delivery of these proposals is dependent on financial approval. A business case will be presented in the autumn.
Helen Jones: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission if the Commission will undertake a review of (a) the contract with Demon and (b) the service offered to hon. Members by PICT. [218517]
Nick Harvey: The contract with Demon, the third party service provider, is subject to regular review meetings with Demon. Some service issues have already been addressed. For example, through collaborative working between BT and Demon disruption to broadband services due to constituency office moves has been reduced considerably. Further improvements are expected in the future. In the short term, the parliamentary ICT Directorate (PICT) and Demon are planning to upgrade some of the slower broadband services. A complete new broadband contract is expected to be procured within the next year.
PICT services to Members were subject to review by the Administration Committee last year. The recommendations made in the Committee's report
Information and Communication Technology Services for Members (HC 498) are reflected in PICT's forward plan of work relating to Members' IT, many of which have now been delivered.
Women and Equality
Departmental Equality
Mrs. May: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality whether the Government Equalities Office met the Civil Service diversity targets set out on page 51 of Cabinet Office Annual Report 2007 by April 2008. [204707]
Barbara Follett: The civil service diversity targets apply to senior grades and are for the civil service as a whole to achieve. The first of the four specific targets is for 37 per cent. women in the senior civil service (grade five officers and above). In the Government Equalities Office, four of the six senior civil servants are women. The second target is for 30 per cent. women in top management posts (those occupied by grade three and above). In GEO one of the two top managers is a woman. The third target, for 4 per cent. ethnic minority staff in the SCS, is not met in the GEO.
The fourth target is for 3.2 per cent. disabled staff in the senior civil service. Staff may declare disabilities voluntarily. GEO will consider whether to disclose any relevant information about this target, taking account of the need to ensure that individuals cannot be identified. This is a particularly important consideration for Departments like the GEO where total staff numbers are small.
Information about gender and ethnicity in the GEO work force is on the GEO website:
The latest published statistics against overall civil service targets were at October 2007, and are available on the civil service website at:
The final measurement against the targets will be published in autumn 2008.
Equal Pay
John Bercow: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent representations she has received on the gender pay gap in the (a) private and (b) public sectors. [204305]
Barbara Follett: In recent months I have received representations from hon. Members of the House of Commons and members of the public on the gender pay gap in the civil service and the public and private sectors and equal pay in local government and the United Kingdom as a whole.
Closing the pay gap between men and women is a high priority for this Government because it allows families to make real choices about how they live their lives. The pay gap perpetuates the unequal division of labour in the home and prevents fathers from playing a more active role in their children's early years and women from fulfilling their opportunities to work. Closing the pay gap is now one of the indicators in the new Equalities Public Service Agreement. This will help to
build on other practical measures we have introduced, such as giving the parents of young, or disabled, children and the carers of adults the right to request flexible working, and providing more access to child care.
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
Mr. Maude: To ask the Prime Minister what the cost of 10 Downing Street was in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [217341]
The Prime Minister: For information for the financial year 2006-07 I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 22 February 2008, Official Report, columns 1098-99W. Figures for the financial year 2007-08 are not yet available.
Mr. Maude: To ask the Prime Minister how many staff were employed by 10 Downing street in (a) April 2007 and (b) April 2008. [217342]
The Prime Minister: I refer the right hon. Member to answers I gave the hon. Members for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) and Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 15 October 2007, Official Report, columns 819-20W, and the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 1 May 2008, Official Report, column 624W.
Departmental Aviation
Mr. Maude: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 18 June 2008, Official Report, column 919W, on departmental aviation, in what format information on domestic flights and expenditure incurred on them is held. [217432]
The Prime Minister: I have nothing further to add to the answer I gave the right hon. Member on 18 June 2008, Official Report, column 919W.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Prime Minister how many (a) new builds and (b) major refurbishments were completed by 10 Downing Street for a cost in excess of £0.5 million in (i) 2005-06, (ii) 2006-07 and (iii) 2007-08 to which the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method or equivalent was applied; how many such buildings were assessed as (A) pass, (B) good, (C) very good and (D) excellent; and if he will make a statement. [213773]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office (Mr. Watson) on 9 July 2008, Official Report, column 1625W.
G8: Japan
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Prime Minister which Ministers and officials will accompany him to the G8 Heads of Government Summit in Japan; and if he will (a) place in the Library and (b) post on his office's website links to the papers submitted to the summit by (i) the United Kingdom and (ii) other participants. [217096]
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Prime Minister if he will raise the human rights situation in Tibet with world leaders during the G8 summit in Japan. [217500]
Mr. Drew: To ask the Prime Minister whether he raised the issues of (a) malaria, (b) tuberculosis and (c) HIV/AIDS eradication with his international counterparts at the recent G8 summit in Japan; and what progress has been made through the G8 towards disease control, with particular reference to Africa. [218212]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Members to my statement on 10 July 2008, Official Report, column 1547. Copies of all 2008 final G8 Summit communiqués have been placed in the Library of the House. Further copies can be found at the Japanese G8 presidency's website:
Members: Electronic Surveillance
Mr. Maude: To ask the Prime Minister whether communications traffic data on telephone calls made (a) by and (b) to hon. Members are covered by the Wilson Doctrine. [217354]
The Prime Minister: I set out the position on the Wilson Doctrine on 12 September 2007, Official Report, column 2103W.
Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Prime Minister which special envoys he has appointed since taking office; what remuneration is paid to each; what allowance each receives for expenses; and how much each has been reimbursed for claims for (a) expenses and (b) travel expenses. [211748]
Norman Baker: To ask the Prime Minister what special envoys he has appointed; and for what purposes in each case. [216779]
The Prime Minister: Since June 2007, I have appointed my hon. Friend the Member for Brent, North (Barry Gardiner) as the Special Envoy for Forestry. My right hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) has served since 2003 as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Human Rights in Iraq and has been reappointed.
Separately, I have appointed my right hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) as the Special Representative to Cyprus.
They are entitled to claim reasonable travel and subsistence expenses incurred as part of their work. These expenses are paid in accordance with existing departmental guidelines on allowances and subsistence.
Paul Sinclair
Mr. Maude: To ask the Prime Minister what the (a) job title and (b) job specification of Mr. Paul Sinclair is in Downing Street. [217390]
The Prime Minister: Special advisers are employed under terms and conditions set out in the Model Contract for Special Advisers. Copies are available in the Library of the House.
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