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29 Sep 2008 : Column 2325W—continued
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff in her Department were (a) dismissed, (b) made subject to disciplinary procedures short of dismissal, (c) moved to different duties as a result of a performance assessment and (d) offered early retirement in each of the last five years. [219182]
Mr. Byrne: The number of staff (a) dismissed and (b) subject to formal disciplinary procedures for poor performance within Home Office headquarters, the UK Border Agency, Identity and Passport Service, and the Criminal Records Bureau, is set out in the following table.
| Table 1 | |||
| Dismissed | Disciplined short of dismissal | Moved to different duties | |
The information contained in the table has been drawn from centrally held databases at this time.
Information prior to 2005, or on the number of staff moved to different duties as a result of poor performance, is not held centrally within Home Office HQ or the UK Border Agency and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Where fewer than five members of staff were dismissed, disciplined or moved to different duties, further information has been withheld on grounds of confidentiality.
The number of staff given early retirement within Home Office headquarters, the UK Border Agency, Identity and Passport Service, and the Criminal Records Bureau in each of the last five financial years is set out in the following table.
| Table 2 | |
| Number | |
The numbers are calculated on the basis of last day of service.
Departmental Early Retirement
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff in (a) her Department and (b) her Department's agencies have taken early retirement in the last two years. [217381]
Mr. Byrne: The following table shows the numbers of staff in the Home Office and its agencies who have taken early retirement in the last two full financial years and the current year to date.
The numbers are calculated on the basis of last day of service.
A more detailed breakdown, including distinguishing between Home Office headquarters and the UK Border Agency and between different types of retirement, could be obtained only by running additional, tailored, reports and this would incur disproportionate cost.
The following table shows the number of staff taking early retirement from the Home Office and its agencies by financial year since 2006-07.
| 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09( 1) | |
| (1) 1 April to 11 July 2008. | |||
Departmental ICT
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) start date, (b) original planned completion date, (c) current expected completion date, (d) planned cost and (e) current estimated cost is for each information technology project being undertaken by her Department and its agencies; and if she will make a statement. [180570]
Mr. Byrne: Following is a table of information technology projects currently being undertaken by the Home Office and its agencies. Please note that, due to the large number of IT projects run by the Home Office we have limited the scope of this response to projects valued at more than £5 million.
In addition to the above, the Home Office is also the lead department for the cross Government Interception Modernisation Programme, announced by the Prime Minister in February 2008
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of her Department's personal digital assistants were (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the last five years; and what the value of those items was. [185283]
Mr. Byrne: Since 2005, Home Office IT Shared Services have enabled access to the Home Office IT infrastructure via the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) for personnel in Home Office HQ and UKBA.—the UK Border Agency.
Numbers reported lost and stolen are given in the following table.
The devices are provided by a third party supplier, to whom the Department pays a service charge. Hence, the value of any losses would be borne by the supplier.
The devices are security protected. Attempted use by unauthorised persons results in the device being locked or the data being completely erased after three failed password attempts.
We do not have comprehensive central records for any devices issued prior to 2005.
| Lost | Stolen | Value (£) | |
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she has taken to ensure that counterfeit routers and other hardware are not utilised in her Department’s computer networks. [203248]
Mr. Byrne: It is not in the interests of the UK’s national security for departments to confirm whether they hold information about malicious attacks against their IT systems.
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate she has made of the cost of the PentiP computer system; and if she will make a statement on the timetable for its introduction. [223556]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 15 September 2008]: The estimated cost of designing, developing and implementing the PentiP system is £19.3 million.
PentiP will introduce a number of improvements to the current working processes involved in dealing with penalty notices. The net effect of which will be a more efficient overall process for the police staff who input tickets to the system and for the courts' staff who process the payment of fines.
The first stage of PentiP, which supports the National Driver Improvement Scheme (NDORS), has now been delivered. It is planned that the contract for the delivery of the remainder of the PentiP system will be awarded in March 2009. Implementation of PentiP in all forces in England and Wales will be completed by May 2012.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if her Department will (a) follow the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) guidelines and (b) display ICRA's label on the websites for which it is responsible. [191772]
Mr. Byrne: The Government are committed to safety online for all users, including children. The Central Office for Information is preparing a new set of guidance for many aspects of the Government web estate and we will implement what they mandate.
Departmental Manpower
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many jobs her Department expects to relocate under the policy of civil service job dispersal. [213413]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office has a target to locate 2,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts in the regions, to contribute to the cross-Government target of 20,000 FTE posts by 2010. Progress is reported in my Department's annual report (Cm 7396).
Despite meeting this target in June 2007 we have still continued to relocate staff out of London and the south east. To date, the number of staff that we have relocated stands at 2,707. The policy of relocation makes use of diverse and valuable skills that can be found across all regions of the UK as well as in London and the South East.
Over the next 18 months we shall continue to relocate posts in the most cost effective manner. We currently have plans in place to relocate a further 250 posts, this figure may rise as and when we make further relocations, depending on the needs of the business.
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