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26 Nov 2008 : Column 2226W—continued
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Grieve:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many private contractors have been granted access to personal data held by her
Department in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement; [226410]
(2) when she plans to reply to question 226410, tabled on 8 October 2008, on private contractors' access to personal data. [238562]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 13 October 2008]: I will write to the hon. Member.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies confidential data have been downloaded on to compact discs (i) without and (ii) with encryption in the last 12 months. [232848]
Jacqui Smith: I will write to the hon. Member.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many computer files containing personal data held by her Department are not encrypted. [233977]
Jacqui Smith: I will write to the hon. Member.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many electronic and computer files her Department and its agencies lost in transit in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [239336]
Mr. Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. gentleman in the time available before Prorogation.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officials in her Department and its agencies are authorised to access electronic files and databases relating to an individual's (a) immigration status, (b) asylum application and (c) passport application; and if she will make a statement. [239337]
Mr. Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Gentleman in the time available before Prorogation.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times (a) her Department and (b) the Border and Immigration Agency lost or misplaced databases containing data on (i) British citizens and (ii) foreign nationals in each of the last five years; what information relating to how many people was held on each lost or misplaced database; and if she will make a statement. [239338]
Mr. Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Gentleman in the time available before Prorogation.
Departmental Databases
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what audits her Department and its agencies have carried out in relation to personal data and IT equipment in each of the last 10 years. [176478]
Mr. Woolas: I will write to the hon. Member.
Departmental Delivery Services
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what checks her Department and its agencies make on the immigration status of couriers working within her Department and its agencies; whether her Department requires courier companies to notify the Department if they discover among their employees an illegal worker who has worked handling documents on behalf of the Home Office and its agencies; and how many illegal workers have been discovered working for such couriers in each of the last three years. [239339]
Mr. Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Gentleman in the time available before Prorogation.
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what sanctions are available in cases of departmental staff found to have committed disciplinary offences; and how many times each has been used in each of the last three years. [230203]
Mr. Woolas: The Department's disciplinary procedures are split into a number of stages -some informal and some formal. In cases of minor misconduct (such as isolated lateness) words of advice are often all that is needed to rectify matters. If there is persistent minor misconduct, or more serious or gross misconduct, then the formal procedures can be used.
Informal stage
First formal warning
Final formal warning
Other penalty short of dismissal
Dismissal
The number of penalties issued under the Department's disciplinary procedures within Home Office HQ, the UK Border Agency, the Identity and Passport Service and the Criminal Records Bureau during the last three years is shown in the following table.
| Table 1: Breakdown of disciplinary penalties issued across the Home Office( 1) | ||||
| First formal warning | Final formal warning | Other penalty short of dismissal( 2) | Dismissal | |
| (1) Information on cases at the informal stage is not recorded centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. (2) Other penalties short of dismissal are used when the disciplinary offence warrants more than a final warning, but is not sufficiently serious to warrant dismissal, such as downgrading or a bar on promotion for a specified period. (3) Where less than five people were given a penalty other than dismissal, further information has been withheld on confidentiality grounds. | ||||
Departmental Domestic Visits
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions she visited (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) Northern Ireland in an official capacity in the last 12 months. [204394]
Mr. Woolas: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary visited Wales on 1 October 2008 and Scotland on 16 October 2008. All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code.
Departmental Early Retirement
Mr. Jeremy Browne:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many employees in her
Department took early retirement in each of the last five financial years; and at what total cost. [238954]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is as follows:
(UKBA) (formally IND), Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), Identity and Passport Service (IPS) and National Probation Service (NPS).
| Table 1: Number of Early Retirements | |||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
Costs of provisions made for Early Departures are published each year in the Home Office Consolidated Resource Accounts. Table 2 shows the provisions made for each financial year, for the full costs of Early Departures from 2003-04 to 2007-08.
Early Departures provisions were not reported separately for financial years 2003-04 and 2004-05, so we have provided a consolidated cost for these periods. These years encompass HO HQ, UKBA, IPS, CRB and HM Prison Service.
Table 2 shows years 2005-06 to 2007-08 the costs encompass HO HQ, UKBA, IPS, CRB and NPS.
| Table 2: Provisions made for each financial year | |||||
| £000 | |||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
Departmental Gifts
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff in her Department have received gifts valued at £100 or higher in the course of their duties in each of the last three years; what these gifts were; and from whom they were received in each case. [239631]
Mr. Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Departmental ICT
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information technology projects are being undertaken by (a) her Department and (b) its agencies; what the (i) start date, (ii) original planned completion date, (iii) expected completion date, (iv) originally planned costs and (v) estimated costs are of each; and if she will make a statement. [209679]
Mr. Woolas: I will write to the hon. Member.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information technology projects initiated by her Department have been cancelled prior to completion in the last five years; and what the cost of each such project was to the public purse. [221710]
Meg Hillier: In March 2008 Identity and Passport Service (IPS) decided to cancel the project designed to upgrade the existing electronic passport application system, and instead reverted to a more limited programme of enhancements to the existing system.
A full review of all costs incurred to the date of cancellation was undertaken and, where hardware and software were suitable for re-use, costs were retained. The total write-down of system assets since the project commenced in 2005 is £10.8 million.
This information was published on page 18 of the Identity and Passport Service’s annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2008.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what IT projects (a) her Department and (b) each of its agencies is undertaking; and what the most recent estimate of (i) the cost and (ii) the completion date of each is. [229154]
Mr. Woolas: I will write to the hon. Member.
Departmental Information
Mr. Maude:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge) of 21 October 2008, Official Report, column 258W, on departmental information, whether any data not classed as core information and
re-usable free of charge has been sold by her Department and its agencies under the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations in the last 12 months. [234020]
Mr. Woolas: I will write to the right hon. Gentleman.
Departmental Information Officers
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) special advisers and (b) press officers have been employed by her Department in each year since 1997-98; and at what cost in each year. [239085]
Mr. Woolas: I will write to the hon. Member.
Departmental Inquiries
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what independent inquiries have been commissioned by her Department in the last five
years; what the (a) purpose and (b) cost was of each; and what steps were taken following each such inquiry. [212322]
Mr. Woolas: I will write to the right hon. Member.
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