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26 Nov 2008 : Column 2063W—continued
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on hospitality in each of the last five financial years. [238892]
Mr. Bradshaw: The following table shows how much the Department spent on hospitality in each of the last five financial years.
| Hospitality expenditure (£) | |
| (1 )It is not possible to derive valid expenditure figures on hospitality from the Department's accounts systems for 2003-04 and 2004-05. | |
Departmental Pay
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many bonus payments were made to his Department's staff in each Civil Service pay grade in each of the last three years; and what the highest and lowest individual bonus payments were in each of those years. [237240]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has two sets of bonus arrangements. For senior civil servants, bonuses may be awarded for delivery of personal objectives or other short-term personal contributions to wider organisational objectives, as part of their annual performance assessment. Arrangements are common across all Departments. For all staff the Department operates a Special Bonus Scheme whereby managers may award a bonus to recognise an outstanding contribution in a particularly demanding situation. This can include a temporary and substantial increase in job loading, dealing with pressures arising from temporary vacancies or job requirements, a high level of commitment and resolution to get a job done, difficulties requiring a special effort to overcome, or a contribution over and above what would normally be expected for the job and of the person, or team, concerned.
The numbers of bonuses and the highest and lowest payments (£) by grade for each of the last three years, for each set of arrangements, are provided in the following tables:
| Senior civil s ervice (SCS) bonuses | |||||||||
| 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | |||||||
| Grade | Number | Highest (£) | Lowest (£) | Number | Highest (£) | Lowest (£) | Number | Highest (£) | Lowest (£) |
| Special bonuses | |||||||||
| 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | |||||||
| Grade( 1) | Number | Highest (£) | Lowest (£) | Number | Highest (£) | Lowest (£) | Number | Highest (£) | Lowest (£) |
| (1) FS = Fast stream. SEO = Senior executive officer. HEO = Higher executive officer. EO = Executive officer. AO = Administrative officer. AA = Administrative assistant (this grade did not exist after August 2006). | |||||||||
The grade under which bonuses are recorded is the current grade, which in some cases may differ from the grade at the time the award was made. Special bonuses for 2008-09 cover only the first seven months of the year. The highest special bonus payments for the SCS in 2006-07 and 2007-08 are likely to be payments that have been wrongly categorised on the Department's payroll system.
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what bonuses were paid by his Department in 2007-08; to which members of staff; and for what purposes. [239666]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has two sets of arrangements under which bonuses can be awarded. For Senior Civil Servants, pay arrangements are common across all Government Departments. The Department's senior pay strategy, which conforms to these common arrangements, explains that bonuses may be awarded for delivery of personal objectives or other short-term personal contributions to wider organisational objectives. Individuals are required to agree their priorities with their manager at the beginning of the performance year. Line managers then make recommendations for performance bonuses which are considered by the Department's pay committees at the end of the performance year. The pay committees, which meet annually, make the final decision on whether a bonus should be awarded, relative to the performance of others.
For staff below the Senior Civil Service, the Department operates a special bonus scheme whereby managers may award a bonus to recognise an outstanding contribution in a particularly demanding situation. This can include a temporary and substantial increase in job loading, dealing with pressures arising from temporary vacancies or job requirements, a high level of commitment and resolution to get a job done, difficulties requiring a special effort to overcome, or a contribution over and above what would normally be expected for the job and of the person, or team, concerned.
For 2007-08, bonuses the total amount paid in bonuses was £1,947,319.
Departmental Pensions
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many civil servants working in his Department and its agencies have pensions with a cash equivalent transfer value of over £1 million. [229551]
Mr. Bradshaw: It is not appropriate to disclose pension information for civil servants other than Board Members whose details are shown in the Remuneration Report in annual Resource Accounts. A copy of the Department's Resource Accounts for the financial year 2007-08 can be found in the Library or accessed electronically at:
The Accounts for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency can be found in the Library or accessed electronically at:
The Accounts for the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency can be found in the Library or accessed electronically at:
Departmental Press Releases
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many press releases have been issued by his Department in each year since 1997-98; and if he will make a statement. [238981]
Mr. Bradshaw: The following table gives the number of press releases issued for each financial year since 1997-98:
| Financial year | Number of press releases issued |
Departmental Property
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the present monetary value of land and buildings, including NHS land and buildings, his Department expects to dispose of by sale in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11; and what estimate his Department has made of the receipts from the sale of each property in each year. [238899]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has not undertaken an estimate of the present monetary value of all the land and buildings that it expects to sell over the three-year period. Any estimate of receipts for individual properties is commercially confidential.
Sales of national health service property are managed by local national health service organisations, principally national health service trusts, national health service foundation trusts and primary care trusts. The Department holds no estimates of the present monetary value of properties that the national health service plans to sell or the receipts they anticipate.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on targeted initiatives in (a) inner cities, (b) rural areas and (c) seaside towns in each of the last 16 years. [235701]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is not held centrally.
We address the varying health needs of local populations through the weighted capitation formula for national health service allocations, which assesses need and determines appropriate levels of resource. This has its social services equivalent in the relative needs formula, developed by the Department for Communities and Local Government to allocate resources to local authorities.
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