Written Answers to Questions
Monday 24 November 2008
Scotland
Christmas
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department has spent on Christmas (a) cards, (b) parties and (c) decorations in the last 12 months. [237480]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office did not incur any expenditure in relation to Christmas parties or Christmas cards within the last 12 months. £262.33 plus VAT was spent on Christmas decorations.
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department spent on external consultancy in each year since 1997-98; and if he will make a statement. [239060]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office was established in its present form on 1 July 1999. Since that date expenditure on external consultancy has been as follows:
| Expenditure (£) | |
Departmental Electronic Equipment
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department has spent on (a) flat screen televisions, (b) DVD players and (c) stereo equipment in each of the last three years. [237446]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office expenditure on flat screen televisions, DVD players and stereo equipment in each of the last three years is listed as follows:
| £ | |||
| 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
All expenditure has to be incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
Departmental Internet
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland for which Government websites his Department is responsible; how many visitors each received in the last period for which figures are available; and what the cost of maintaining each site was in that period. [235029]
Ann McKechin: Between April 2007 and March 2008, the Scotland Office web-site received 94,714 visitors. During this period, the cost of hosting the site was £550 and the cost of routine maintenance was £2,440.
The Scotland Office sponsors the Boundary Commission for Scotland which runs its own website. Between April 2007 and March 2008, that website received 686,342 page hits. The number of visitors is not separately recorded. During this period, the cost of running the site was £1,320. Routine maintenance is carried out internally, and associated staff costs are not collected separately.
Departmental Land
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much surplus land his Department owns; and what the (a) area and (b) estimated monetary value of each site is. [236417]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office does not own any land.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many staff in his Department are responsible for branding activity; and what the cost of employing such staff was in 2007-08. [237467]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office did not employ any staff to undertake branding activities in 2007-08.
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department spent on (a) publicity and (b) advertising in each year since 1997-98; and if he will make a statement. [238951]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office was established in its present form on 1 July 1999. Since that date expenditure on publicity and advertising has been as follows:
| Expenditure (£) | |
Most of the expenditure in 2000-01 and 2001-02 relates to electoral registration matters. Since 2001, this has been the responsibility of the Electoral Commission.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department assist special advisers; and what the cost of employing such staff was in each of the last three years. [237500]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office does not maintain records of the administrative time provided to special advisers and therefore is unable to identify the full time equivalent figure. However no staff, in the three years to 30 March 2008, were dedicated to supporting special advisers.
Departmental Written Questions
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland pursuant to the answer of 18 November 2008, Official Report, columns 251-2W, on departmental written questions, what the cost of providing the answer was. [238853]
Ann McKechin: The cost of providing the answer to the Member was minimal and well within the disproportionate cost limit.
Racial Harassment
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many complaints of racial abuse relating to staff for which his Department is responsible have been (a) investigated and (b) upheld in the last 12 months. [236904]
Ann McKechin: There have been no complaints of racial abuse in the Scotland Office in the last 12 months.
Home Department
Alcoholic Drinks: Crime
Mr. Grieve:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the written ministerial statement by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport of 4 March 2008, Official Report, columns 102-5WS, on tackling alcohol-related problems, when
the summit of police and local authorities to discuss proposals to tackle alcohol-related problems was convened; and what the outcome of the discussion was. [234277]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 10 November 2008]: The Home Office and Department for Culture Media and Sports jointly held a summit with senior police officers and local authority chief executives on 5 June to discuss how the powers in the Licensing Act 2003 and other interventions can be used most effectively to control problem premises which sell alcohol. Following the successful summit, the Department for Culture Media and Sports has issued guidance on a range of innovative and tough conditions as well as on the introduction of the 'yellow card/red card' scheme to encourage earlier and stronger intervention to tackle problem premises. The Home Office has recently rolled out bespoke, regional workshops to help frontline practitioners to better understand and encourage them in the use of the general alcohol-related tools and powers and specifically Licensing Act 2003 offences.
We will be augmenting these workshops with a comprehensive support package including updated tools and powers guidance, video training modules and reference materials.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) cautions and (b) arrests for alcohol-related offences there were in (i) Ashford constituency and (ii) Kent in the last eight quarters for which records are available. [237011]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The information requested in respect of cautions, covering offences of (a) drunkenness, (b) drunkenness with aggravation, (c) offences against the licensing acts, (d) other offences against intoxicating liquor laws, and (e) selected motoring offences, is provided in the following table. The Office for Criminal Justice Reform is unable to provide data for Ashford constituency as data are not collected at the level required.
The information requested on arrests is not collected centrally. The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, covering categories such as violence against the person and robbery. The alcohol related offences presented in the table are not notifiable offences and do not form part of the arrests collection.
From data reported to the Ministry of Justice, with the exception of these offences, it is not possible to separately identify whether arrests and cautions for other offences were alcohol related.
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the costs of alcohol-related crime in (a) Ribble Valley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the UK since the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003. [237210]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office has estimated that in 2006-07 the cost of alcohol related crime in relation to England and Wales was £9 billion-15 billion. We are not able to break down the figures to local authority area. This estimate is based on the crime figures from 2006-07, and the Home Office is not able to compare the costs before and after the Licensing Act 2003 came into force. The estimate was published in the impact assessment which accompanied the Department of Health's consultation on the next steps in the Alcohol Strategy. This can be found at:
The 2008 review of the Licensing Act found that since the new legislation came into effect, serious violent crime at night was down 5per cent. and less serious wounding at night was down 3 per cent.
However, between October 2005 and September 2006 there was a small increase in offences reported between 3 am and 6 am (these represent only 4 per cent. of night-time offences).
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