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29 Jan 2009 : Column 796W—continued
Departmental Catering
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) directly-operated and (b) franchised catering outlets her Department and its agencies provide for staff. [249076]
Mr. Woolas: On available information the Home Office has no directly operated or franchised catering outlets. Staff restaurants are provide by contract caterers.
Departmental Correspondence
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her Department's average response time to a letter received from (a) an hon. Member and (b) a member of the public was in each of the last three years. [251441]
Mr. Woolas: The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of departments in replying to Members' correspondence. The report for 2007 was published on 20 March 2008, Official Report, columns 71-74WS.
Information for 2008 is currently being collated and will be published as soon as it is ready. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House.
The specific information requested for 2008 is as follows:
| Average response times | |||
| Number of days | |||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Note: The target for replying to Home Office Ministerial Correspondence is 15 working days. For all other correspondence categories it is 20 working days. UKBA figures for public letters and emails are not available. | |||
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long on average her Department took to provide a substantive response to correspondence from members of the public in the last 12 months. [251613]
Mr. Woolas: The average time taken to respond to correspondence from members of the public—letters and e-mails—is 15.6 working days.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long on average her Department took to reply to correspondence from hon. Members in the last 12 months. [251680]
Mr. Woolas: The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to Members’ correspondence. The report for 2007 was published on 20 March 2008, Official Report, columns 71-74WS.
Information for 2008 is currently being collated and will be published as soon as it ready. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House.
The specific information requested is as follows for 2008:
| Correspondence category | Average response time 2008 (days) |
| Note: The target for replying to Home Office ministerial correspondence is 15 working days. For UKBA ministerial correspondence it is 20 working days. | |
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Vara:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many contracts (a) her Department
and (b) its agencies have which allow contractors to store personal data of UK citizens overseas; for which contracts this applies; in which countries the data for each contract are held; and how many people have their data stored overseas in the case of each such contract. [245346]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Department inclusive of its agencies does not hold a central register of contracts which allow contractors to store personal data of UK citizens overseas. To extract and collate the information from individual records would incur a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Languages
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in her Department received coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months; what expenditure her Department incurred in providing such coaching; and in what languages such coaching was provided. [248080]
Mr. Woolas: In the last 12 months no Ministers within the Department received coaching in a foreign language. Information relating to the number of civil servants who have received such coaching and the expenditure such coaching incurred is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the Answer of 18 June 2008, Official Report, column 962W, on departmental personnel, what the current figure is for staff without posts in her Department and its agencies; how many of the staff without posts were classified as such on returning from maternity leave; and how many of the staff without posts have been classified as such for at least (a) six months and (b) 12 months. [250540]
Mr. Woolas: The position as at 31 December 2008 is shown in the following table.
| Table 1: Staff classified as being without a post as at 31 December 2008 | ||||
| Staff classified as: | ||||
| Being without a post on returning from maternity leave | Being without a post for up to six months | Being without a post for more than six months but less than 12 months | Being without a post for more than 12 months | |
| (1) Less than 5. | ||||
The 39 members of staff classified as being without posts represents 0.15 per cent. of the total Home Office workforce.
These staff are currently undertaking work for the Department while a new post is actively sought, either within the Home Office and its agencies, or in another Government Department.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many special advisers were employed in her Department at each pay band on 30 November 2008; and what her Department’s total expenditure on special advisers was in 2007-08. [243571]
Mr. Woolas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 15 January 2009, Official Report, column 870W.
Departmental Procurement
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of invoices for goods and services procured from small and medium-sized businesses were paid within 10 days of receipt by (a) her Department and (b) the agencies for which her Department is responsible in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2007-08; and if she will make a statement. [243354]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Department including United Kingdom Border Agency terms of payment was 26 days in 2006-07 and 2007-08 except in special circumstances, where an immediate payment was required. To provide this information would incur disproportionate cost.
However, following the Prime Minister's commitment of 8 October that central Government Departments will make payment within 10 days we will additionally report 10 day payment performance and are able to report on this.
Both the Identity and Passport Service and Criminal Records Bureau agencies do not hold the required information for 2006-07 and 2007-08 financial years and to obtain it would incur disproportionate cost.
Following the announcement on 8 October both of these agencies are working towards paying SMEs within 10 days of receipt of invoices.
Departmental Surveys
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department's central media and communication unit spent on public surveys in each of the last three years. [248034]
Mr. Woolas: In the last three full financial years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08, the Home Office central communications unit estimates that the total expenditure on public surveys is as follows:
| £ | |
Domestic Violence
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of domestic violence police in each police authority have dealt with in each year since 1997. [251338]
Mr. Alan Campbell: From the information collected centrally on recorded crime, it is not possible to identify recorded cases of domestic violence. Such offences are not specifically defined by law and details of the individual circumstances of offences are not collected.
Domestic Violence: Research
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research her Department has evaluated on the link between cases of domestic violence and subsequent murders. [250598]
Jacqui Smith: The Home Office has not commissioned any specific research on this.
The Home Office does routinely collect recorded crime information, via the Homicide Index, on the relationship of homicide victims to the principal suspect. The latest published information for 2007-08 can be found online on the Home Office website:
Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 24 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1241-42W, on demonstrations: Parliament Square, when the Government's response to the Joint Committee on the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill's report, stated in the answer to be imminent, will be published. [249772]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 20 January 2009]: The Ministry of Justice is co-ordinating the Government's response to the report of the Joint Committee on the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill. We continue to give careful consideration to the recommendations on protests around Parliament which are set out in the Joint Committee's report and a full response will be published ahead of the Constitutional Renewal Bill's introduction to Parliament.
The Government are keen to give a substantial response to the Joint Committee but this has meant resolving all outstanding policy issues before the Bill is introduced. We recognise that there has been a long period since the publication of the report, but believe it is better to respond fully to the committee's recommendations on all aspects of the draft Bill. We intend to respond as early as possible in 2009.
Drugs: Crime Prevention
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the budget for her Department's drug control programme was spent on (a) enforcement and (b) treatment in each year since 2004. [251465]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Drug treatment is the responsibility of the Department for Health, and the Home Office does not therefore commit any of the Department’s budget to drug treatment.
Figures published in the Updated Drug Strategy 2002 show estimates of the labelled and non-labelled total expenditure on drugs, and on strands of the strategy, calculated on the basis of its four thematic aims. Elements of enforcement fall within two of these four aims—supply reduction and protecting communities—although these aims will also include expenditure on items which do not relate to enforcement of the law. As it is not possible to disaggregate these figures, those which have been given for expenditure on enforcement from 2003-04 to 2005-06 will therefore exceed the real level of expenditure.
Figures for 2006-07, while not published, have been calculated on the same basis as those for 2003-04 to 2005-06. Figures for 2007-08 and 2008-09 are labelled expenditure only, as published in the drug strategy Drugs: protecting families and communities. These figures have been calculated on a departmental basis and, while expenditure on enforcement activity will fall broadly within the departmental expenditure of the Home Office, the figure will exceed the real level of expenditure on enforcement activity only. Similarly, the Department of Health will fund activity which would not fall within a rigid definition of treatment, nor is all expenditure on treatment—particularly that for young people—covered by the Department of Health budget. These figures should therefore be treated as indicative.
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