Previous Section Index Home Page

9 Feb 2009 : Column 1562W—continued

Departmental Buildings

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland with reference to the answer of 24 November 2008, Official Report, column 881W, on departmental buildings, what the cost of the works was before occupation. [250554]

Paul Goggins: The total cost of the works is shown in the following table.

Office name Size (sq m) Total cost of works, excluding VAT (£)

Lisburn Chambers, Linenhall Street, Lisburn, County Antrim

2493

1,159,580

Linum Chambers, Bedford Square, Bedford Street, Belfast

2802

998,753

Ballymena Chambers, Parkway, Ballymena, County Antrim

2494

1,055,500

Omagh Chambers, 2 Townhall Square, Omagh, County Tyrone

2265

1,070,633

Foyle Chambers, 35 Limavady Road, Londonderry, County Londonderry

2364

(1)945,000

(1) Anticipated total cost.

Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many staff in his Department were disciplined for (a) bullying and (b) harassment of colleagues in each of the last three years. [254078]

Paul Goggins: The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and its agencies have policies and procedures in place to deal with harassment and bullying. Staff in the NIO undergo mandatory training in equality and diversity, which includes guidance on appropriate behaviour in the workplace. The number of staff disciplined for bullying and/or harassment of work colleagues in each of the years requested is as follows:

Bullying Harassment Bullying and harassment

2006

0

0

0

2007

0

1

1

2008

1

1

0


Departmental ICT

Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the (a) original expected cost, (b) original expected delivery date, (c) actual cost incurred and (d) actual delivery date was of each ICT project undertaken and completed by his Department
9 Feb 2009 : Column 1563W
in each year since 1997; who the contractors for each project were; what the (i) initial estimated and (ii) outturn payment to each contractor was; and if he will make a statement. [251143]

Paul Goggins: The majority of ICT projects are relatively small and are developed in-house with minimum cost.
9 Feb 2009 : Column 1564W
To compile information to support all projects would be at disproportionate cost. Therefore the information contained in the following table relates only to projects costing in excess of £1 million.

1998 1999 1999 2001 2002 2003 2003 2008

Project

Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Londonderry

OASIS Y2K Refresh

COMPASS

PRISM

CAUSEWAY

DPP Infrastructure

FLAX

PRISM, Technical Refresh

Purpose

Implementation of IT systems to support the work of the inquiry

To upgrade NIO departmental infrastructure and make it Y2K compliant

To provide an e-human resources system for the Northern Ireland Prison Service

To provide a prisoner record system for the Northern Ireland Prison Service

A joint enterprise by criminal justice organisations in Northern Ireland to share information electronically

To implement a modern ICT infrastructure for the DPP NI

Replace NIO IT infrastructure, provide internet and intranet and meet electronic document and records management targets

Refresh of the software and architecture

Original expected cost (£ million excluding VAT)

n/k

2.1

4.6

(1)3.61

42.7

1.2

8.5

1.3

Original expected delivery date

n/k

December 1999

April 2002

December 2005

December 2006

October 2003

December 2004

March 2010

Actual cost incurred (£ million excluding VAT)

33

2.2

5

4.66

33 to date

1.2

8.5

Actual delivery date

1998 to date

December 1999

September 2003

September 2005 to March 2008

Ongoing

October 2003

December 2004

2008-ongoing

Contractors

Bull Information Systems, International Computers Capital Computers, Diagonal Solutions, Deloittes, Fujitsu

HP

Pecaso Accenture

Sopra

Fujitsu

BT

BT

Sopra and further contracts to be awarded

Initial estimated payment to contractors (£ million)

n/k

2.1

3

3.61

42.7

8.5

1.3

Outturn payment to contractors (£ million)

33

2.2

3.4

4.66

22 to date

n/k

8.5

(1) The PRISM costs include the capital and recurring costs of the project and cover the period up to the completion of implementation in March 2008. The costs also include the provision of a range of additional functionality including biometric access controls.

Departmental Official Residences

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend East of 6 October 2008, Official Report, columns 86-87W, on departmental official residences, who pays the council tax bills for the mainland Britain residential accommodation. [253641]

Mr. Woodward: My Department pays the council tax bills for residential accommodation used by staff based in London who are required to work away from their appointed office in Belfast.

Departmental Training

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which external organisations his Department has engaged to provide training for fast stream civil service staff in the last three years; and how many civil servants in his Department have participated in the provision of training for external organisations in that period. [252218]

Mr. Woodward: The following list gives the external organisations engaged by the Northern Ireland Office to provide training for fast stream staff in the past three years.


9 Feb 2009 : Column 1565W

External provider

During the past three years, 29 staff from Northern Ireland Office have participated in the provision of training to external organisations.

Drugs: Smuggling

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many Irish nationals were convicted of drug trafficking offences in Northern Ireland in the last 12 months. [255015]

Paul Goggins: In 2006 (the latest year for which data are available), 14 persons with Irish nationality were convicted of drug trafficking offences.

Data are collated on the principal offence rule; so only the most serious offence with which an offender is charged is included.

Mass Media

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the cost of his Department’s contracts with press monitoring services was in each of the last five years. [251197]

Mr. Woodward: The following table details the Northern Ireland Office’s expenditure, excluding agencies and Executive NDPBs, on contracts with press monitoring services in the last five years.

Financial year Expenditure (£)

2007-08

0

2006-07

2,600

2005-06

23,663

2004-05

0

2003-04

0


Offensive Weapons

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people were convicted of knife crimes in Northern Ireland in the last 12 months. [254938]

Paul Goggins: The information is not available in the format requested as it is not possible to separately identify the number of convictions for certain offences, for example murder, in which a knife was involved. It is only possible to provide conviction statistics for those offences which, in their definition, refer to an ‘offensive weapon’ (of which knives will be one sub-category) or ‘article with blade or point’. These are:

In 2006 (the latest year for which data are available), there were 242 such convictions.


9 Feb 2009 : Column 1566W

Data are collated on the principal offence rule; so only the most serious offence with which an offender is charged is included.

Prison Sentences

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the likely effects of sentences of imprisonment for public protection on levels of discipline among the prison population in Northern Ireland. [255446]

Paul Goggins: Our assessment, based on analysis of experience in other jurisdictions, would indicate that in many cases prisoners subject to public protection sentences are more likely to co-operate with the sentencing planning process in order to demonstrate risk reduction. NIPS do not anticipate that the new sentencing arrangements will have any impact on levels of discipline among the prison population in Northern Ireland.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Arms Trade

Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to his US counterpart on the US Administration’s support for the Arms Trade treaty process; and if he will make a statement. [254030]

Bill Rammell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 25 November 2008, Official Report, column 1194W.

Although the US voted against the resolution at the UN General Assembly vote in December 2008, the US delegation took part in the UN meeting in New York on 23 January 2009 preparing for the Opening Ended Working Group, which starts in March 2009. This is an encouraging sign, and shows that the US remains engaged in discussions on this issue.

We will be raising the Arms Trade treaty, alongside a wide range of other subjects with the new US Administration over the next few weeks, as both senior appointees and officials take up their new positions.


Next Section Index Home Page