Chris Huhne:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department paid to staff in annual appraisal-related end-year bonuses in 2007-08. [217322]
Jacqui Smith:
For staff in Home Office headquarters, UK Border Agency, and the senior civil service end-of-year bonuses are linked to annual appraisals.
For 2007-08 these bonuses will be paid in July salaries along with the annual pay award and therefore this information will not be available until September.
Identity and Passport Service does not operate an end of year annual appraisal related bonus scheme for all its staff. Where bonuses are applicable, these are expected to be paid in July salaries and this information will not be available until September.
Staff in the Criminal Records Bureau do not receive end of year appraisal bonuses.
Departmental Publicity
Mr. Philip Hammond:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department and its agencies spent on staff working on (a) marketing and (b) branding in the last 12 month period for which figures are available. [167304]
Mr. Byrne:
The total cost of staff responsible for marketing and branding for the 12 month period ending 31 December 2007 is detailed in the following table.
The marketing staff delivered campaigns including alcohol, harm reduction, drugs prevention, police recruitment, immigration control, advice to employers and changes to passport applications
The total cost of staff responsible for marketing and branding for the 12-month period ending 31 December 2007 is detailed in the following table:
22 July 2008 : Column 1334W
January 2007 to December 2007
£
Staff costs for m arketing
Staff costs for b randing
Home Office
990,630
3,124
Borders and Immigration Agency
238,345
124,710
Identity and Passport Service
774,436
104,453
Total
2,003,411
232,287
Departmental Responsibilities
Mr. Maude:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reviews of regulation her Department and its agencies have conducted or commenced since July 2007; and in which areas. [210840]
Mr. Byrne:
The Government’s approach to post-legislative scrutiny was set out by the Leader of the House of Commons in “Post-legislative Scrutiny - The Government’s Approach” (Cm 7320) published in March 2008. The Home Office is following this new systematic process to post-legislative scrutiny. Reviews that are undertaken under the new process will, where necessary, be submitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee and copies made available on the Home Office website. In addition, the revised impact assessment (IA) process has increased the focus on post implementation reviews, with each individual IA setting out when the policy would be reviewed.
Departmental Sick Leave
Mr. Hoban:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many working days were lost by her Department due to stress-related illness in each of the last 24 months. [198947]
Mr. Byrne:
31,194 days were lost during 2006-07, and 36,877 days lost from 2007-08.
In 2006-07, the Home Office HQ included the following departments: Communities Group, that National Offender Management Services and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform which have now all transferred out. It is important to note NOMS and OCJR left in May 2007 to join Ministry of Justice, and therefore have been included for the month of April 2007. Communities Group transferred to DCLG in May 2006.
The information has been drawn from the Home Office personnel system (Adelphi). Calculations are based on a 12-month rolling period as monthly calculations are not an accurate representation of working days lost.
Departmental Surveys
Mr. Ruffley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff surveys her Department has undertaken in the last 12 months; and at what cost. [219153]
Mr. Byrne:
The Home Office headquarters and the United Kingdom Border Agency conducted a joint staff survey in February 2008. This is the only full staff 22 July 2008 : Column 1335W
survey they have conducted since 2005. The 2008 survey cost a total of £66,338.64 which includes reprographics.
The Criminal Records Bureau conducted a staff satisfaction survey in September 2007 and it cost £25,180.
The Identity and Passport Service have not conducted a survey in the last 12 months.
Departmental Telephone Services
Julia Goldsworthy:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information her Department collects and monitors in relation to the telephone contact centres for which her Department is responsible. [166551]
Mr. Byrne:
The information is as follows:
Contact centre
Purpose
Information collected and monitored
Ashby-de-la-Zouch (Leicestershire)
IPS—Call arrangements are for customer inquiries and appointment bookings—also e-mail inquiries such as progress chasers, customer complaints and requests for passport application packs
Information is collected and monitored relating to performance against contractual targets. Information is also collected on the types of general queries being asked by the public
Bangor (Northern Ireland)
IPS—Call arrangements are for customer inquiries and appointment bookings—also e-mail inquiries such as progress chasers, customer complaints and requests for passport application packs
Information is collected and monitored relating to performance against contractual targets. Information is also collected on the types of general queries being asked by the public
Bristol
IPS—Call arrangements are for customer inquiries and appointment bookings—also e-mail inquiries such as progress chasers, customer complaints and requests for passport application packs
Information is collected and monitored relating to performance against contractual targets. Information is also collected on the types of general queries being asked by the public
Home Office public Switchboard
Deals with non-specific callers (those who do not have a name/extension number)
The Home Office public switchboard collects information on the subject of the call, the number of calls and the number of calls responded to within published targets
Immigration Enquiry Bureau (IEB)
BIA—Deals with inquiries from the public relating to general immigration issues, requests for progress on individual cases and requests for immigration application forms
Number of call attempts, number of calls answered, number of calls abandoned, calls abandoned while waiting to be answered, number of calls abandoned following information messages. The average time to answer a call and the average length of a call
Sheffield CC
BIA—inquiries on all work permit schemes and programmes and provides advice to employers on recruiting non-UK nationals
1 per cent. of all calls are monitored for quality purposes
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Liverpool CC
BIA—Deals with general inquiries about citizenship and right of abode, requests for progress on individual cases and requests for application forms
Call centres are measured on the number of calls answered against demand on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and on the quality of service provided. 1 per cent. of all calls are monitored for quality purposes
Evidence and Inquiry
BIA—Deals with a range of inquiries from other Crown Agencies
Facilities in place to record calls—also reports weekly and monthly on a number of quality fronts including one to one sessions with staff and dealing with complaints when received
MP’s Hotline
BIA—Deals with MP’s House of Lords, European Parliament and members of the Scottish Parliament and devolved Assemblies
Performance measured on calls answered against demand on a daily basis and reports management information weekly to managers
CRB Contact Centre
Deals with the receipt of telephone calls from applicants, organisations, registered bodies (through whom applicants submit their applications) and other third parties.
Time taken to answer calls, percentage of calls answered within 20 seconds, average time to answer calls in seconds, abandoned calls, percentage of calls terminated by the caller, phone contact availability for all lines, percentage of time (during the opening hours of the centre) with all lines unavailable, phone contact availability for a specific phone. Percentage of time during the opening hours of the contact centre
Adelphi Service Centre
Deals with invoice payments, expense payments, Adelphi password resets and general assistance
The business is based on transactional processing for invoices and expense claims. Support is also offered around the Adelphi System dealing with general inquiries and password resets. This is monitored through contractual service levels and KPI’s
Julia Goldsworthy:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much each telephone contact centre for which her Department is responsible has (a) cost and (b) generated in income in each financial year since their establishment. [166552]
Mr. Byrne:
The information is in the following table.
Contact centre
Purpose
Cost
Generated income
Ashby-de-la-Zouch (Leicestershire)
IPS—Call arrangements are for customer inquiries and appointment bookings—also e-mail inquiries such as progress chasers, customer complaints and requests for passport application packs.
From 2001 to 2006 an average of £7.5 million per annum for call handling and fulfilment services (includes all IPS contact centres).
Average generated income from 2001 to 2006 is approximately £308,000 from 0870 numbers.
22 July 2008 : Column 1337W
Bangor (Northern Ireland)
IPS-As above
As above
The above figure applies to all IPS contact centres
Bristol
IPS-As above
As above
As above
Home Office public switchboard
Deals with non-specific callers (those who do not have a name/extension number).
The switchboard is run internally at an annual staff cost of £90,000.
No income
Immigration Enquiry Bureau (IEB)
BIA—Deals with inquiries from the public relating to general immigration issues, requests for progress on individual cases and requests for immigration application forms.
Bespoke financial info is not available for previous years on the call centres, since their annual cost was previously amalgamated with other non-call centre activities.
April 2002 to March 2003—£88,333.00 April 2003 to March 2004—£97,212.00 April 2004 to March 2005—£108,151.00 (This applies to all BIA contact centres)
Sheffield CC
BIA—Deals with inquiries on all work permit schemes and programmes and provides advice to employers on recruiting non UK nationals.
The expected running cost for the financial year for 2007-08 is £1.34 million
As above
Liverpool CC
BIA—Deals with general inquiries about citizenship and right of abode, requests for progress on individual cases and requests for application forms.
The expected running cost for the financial year for 2007-08 is £1.44 million
As above
Evidence and Enquiry
BIA—Deals with a range of inquiries from other Crown Agencies.
The expected running cost for the financial year for 2007-08 is £1.59 million
As above
MP's Hotline
BIA—Deals with MP's House of Lords, European Parliament and Members of the Scottish Parliament and devolved assemblies. Deals with a range of inquiries.
The expected running cost for the financial year 2007-08 is £530,000.
As above
CRB Contact Centre
Deals with the receipt of telephone calls from applicants, organisations, registered bodies (through whom applicants submit their applications) and other third parties.
There is no separate charge for the call centre—it is wrapped up in the-overall service.
No income
22 July 2008 : Column 1338W
Adelphi Service Centre
Deals with invoice payments, expense payments, Adelphi password resets and general assistance.
Cost for 2006-07 financial year is £349,789.00.
No income
Departmental Written Questions
David Simpson:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long on average her Department took to answer (a) ordinary written and (b) named-day questions in each of the last three years. [215465]
Mr. McNulty:
The information for each member could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
However, a manual check of the parliamentary questions database showed that it took on average, 11 days to answer written questions tabled by the hon. Member for Upper Bann from the start of the 2007-08 session to the 3 July 2008.
