| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
17 Nov 2008 : Column 67W—continued
| Minister: Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People | |
| Official engagement | Date |
|
Welfare Reform Green Paper Visit-Edinburgh International Conference Centre | |
| Minister: Lord Bill McKenzie, Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Lords | |
| Official engagement | Date |
Departmental Pensions
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department and its agencies are members of the (a) Classic, (b) Classic Plus, (c) Nuvos and (d) Premium civil service pension schemes. [229522]
Jonathan Shaw: The current numbers of Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies’ staff who are members of the Principal Civil Service Pensions Scheme are as follows:
| Scheme | Number | Percentage |
Departmental Public Relations
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department spent on (a) entertainment, (b) advertising and promotion and (c) public relations consultancy in 2007-08. [228098]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department for Work and Pensions has incurred expenditure in 2007-08 on the following individual areas:
| £000 | |
All expenditure on entertainment, which falls within the classification ‘Hospitality’ is made in accordance with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on principles set out in Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
Departmental Recruitment
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much (a) his Department and (b) its Executive agencies spent on (i) recruitment consultants and (ii) external recruitment advertising to recruit staff in each of the last five financial years; which recruitment consultants were employed for those purposes in each of those years; and if he will make a statement. [226804]
Jonathan Shaw: Over a period of four years, April 2004 to March 2008, the Department for Work and Pensions has, on average, recruited 8,200 new employees per year. The bulk of the new employees are recruited by Jobcentre Plus on behalf of both itself and other parts of the Department. The Department during the same period recruited, on average, 75 new employees per year into either the senior civil service, or into specialist or professional roles. In respect of these recruitments, the Department operates a framework agreement under which five suppliers have been selected to provide recruitment consultancy services. The suppliers are Hays, Capita, Assessment and Development Ltd., PricewaterhouseCoopers and Water for Fish.
The Department is also able to draw on a number of other suppliers from a framework agreement operated by the Cabinet Office for senior civil service recruitment. The suppliers in question are Rockpools, Moloney Search, Strategic Dimensions, Gatenby Sanderson, Egon Zehnder, Saxton Bampfylde Hever, Veredus, Hays, Penna, Whitehead Mann, Hoggart Bowers and Odgers Ray and Berndtson.
The amount spent on recruitment consultants are given as follows. Information for 20003-04 and 2004-05 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
| £ | |
The aforementioned figures include the cost of recruitment advertising where that has been procured by the consultants concerned. Information on other recruitment advertising could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Departmental Responsibilities
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the initial traffic light status of each project in his Department and its agencies which has been the subject of a gateway review was. [226197]
Jonathan Shaw: Gateway reports, including the findings and status, are conducted on a confidential basis for senior responsible owners (SROs). We do not make this information routinely public.
Departmental Telephone Services
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department has considered changing its 084 telephone advice lines to 03 numbers; and if he will make a statement. [236167]
Jonathan Shaw: Our ambition is to provide our customers with straight forward and low cost access to our services, and our approach to the use of telephony numbers is based on that principle.
We have considered whether it would be better for our customers to switch to the use of 03xx but we believe that the use of 0800 and 0845 continues to provide the solution which is, on balance, most advantageous to our customers as a whole.
Deprivation Indicators
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the index of deprivation is in each of the principal seaside towns in England and Wales. [234938]
John Healey: I have been asked to reply.
The following tables list the codes for the least and most deprived lower super output areas in the principal seaside towns in England, on the overall measure of multiple deprivation and across the seven domains of the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007. Information on deprivation in Welsh towns can be obtained from the Welsh Assembly Government Statistical Directorate.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |