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24 Feb 2009 : Column 522W—continued
Ex-servicemen: York
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many ex-service (a) men and (b) women living in the City of York have received Veteran's Badges. [257825]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The information is not held in the format that identifies how many ex-service men and women living in the City of York have received their Veterans Badges. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
We have however, identified that 1,391 veterans applying for the badge have included York in their address.
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) service and (b) ex-service (i) men and (ii) women normally resident in York have received (A) medals for bravery or distinguished service, (B) mentions in despatches, (C) campaign medals and (D) other medals and honours for military service since 1997. [257828]
Mr. Kevan Jones: This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Middle East: Armed Conflict
Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether any unmanned aerial vehicles tested at Parc Aberporth have been deployed by Israel in Gaza; and if he will make a statement. [257361]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The MOD has not tested any unmanned aerial vehicles at Parc Aberporth.
QinetiQ
Mr. Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to the Treasury Minute entitled The privatisation of QinetiQ issued in response to the Committee of Public Accounts' Twenty-Fourth Report of session 2007-08, what steps his Department has taken as a result of the findings of the review of QinetiQ's compliance regime undertaken by his Department's internal auditors. [257577]
Mr. Quentin Davies: As a result of the recommendations made by the Defence Internal Audit report, the following action has been taken by the Department:
Inclusion of Defence Equipment and Support senior commercial staff in the approvals process to ensure that risk assessments address interrelationships between projects and cover the totality of MOD's business.
Increased visibility of QinetiQ's oversight and implementation of the compliance regime through Defence Equipment and Support Director General Commercial involvement and inclusion in the QinetiQ Compliance Committee correspondence.
QinetiQ will provide Defence Equipment and Support with formal confirmation of their internal reviews and notify the Department of the findings, to enable a joint approach to managing risk.
Improvements to day to day operation of the firewall procedures including an update to QinetiQ's Compliance Manual to improve the firewall closure process.
Ongoing awareness training for Department commercial staff to ensure early identification of conflicts in the supply chain.
Development of a set of generic principles for dealing with conflicts of interest wherever they occur in the supply chain. These principles draw heavily on the QinetiQ compliance regime which is seen as effective and comprehensive.
Transport
Accessibility and Equalities Directorate
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport with reference to the answer of 27 January 2009, Official Report, column 298W, on the Accessibility and Equalities Directorate, what timetable he has set for considering options for the management of his Department's business in relation to the work carried out by the Accessibility and Equalities Directorate. [258199]
Mr. Hoon: I have not set a timetable. The Permanent Secretary is responsible for the effective management of staff and resources to achieve all departmental goals, including the promotion of greater equality of opportunity for all citizens.
Departmental Aviation
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many flights each Minister in his Department has made in each of the last five years; how many miles each Minister has flown in each of those years; how much in carbon dioxide emissions is attributable to these flights; and what the cost of the flights has been. [258162]
Mr. Hoon:
The detailed information requested is not held centrally, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Since 1999 the Government have published a list of Cabinet Ministers' overseas travel over £500 along with the total cost for all ministerial travel. The list for 2007-08 includes a list of overseas travel over £500 undertaken by all Ministers. Information for the last financial year was published on 22 July 2008, Official Report, column 102WS. Copies of previous
lists are available in the Libraries of the House. All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code.
All central Government ministerial and official air travel has been offset from 1 April 2006. Most Departments calculate their aviation emissions on an annual basis and subsequently offset through payments to a central fund. The fund purchases UN-approved certified emissions reductions credits from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with sustainable development benefits, located in developing countries.
A list of Government Carbon Offsetting Fund members, their emission figures and what activities they have offset through the fund is available online at:
Departmental Data Protection
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many members of staff in his Department have been (a) investigated, (b) suspended and (c) dismissed for losing (i) memory sticks, (ii) laptop computers, (iii) desktop computers and (iv) mobile telephones belonging to his Department in each year since 1997. [248243]
Mr. Hoon: The Department's seven Executive agencies and its Shared Service Centre have not found records of any instances of staff members being suspended or dismissed in relation to the loss of memory sticks, laptop computers, desktop computers or mobile telephones. To fully search the historical disciplinary data for the central Department would incur disproportionate costs.
Departments have taken urgent and decisive action across Government to improve data handing including minimising the amount of data put on removable media, encryption programmes for data and mobile devices that carry personal protected data and the introduction of training and education programmes to improve staff awareness of information risks.
The Government take data security very seriously which is why a report into data handling procedures across Government was commissioned and new measures to improve and strengthen controls in the protection of personal data were introduced.
Under Para 2.8 of the Data Handling Report published in June 2008, all Departments are required to:
“amend HR processes where necessary to make clear that failing to apply controls in handling personal data could amount to gross misconduct.”
The Department and its agencies are in the process of reviewing HR processes to ensure that they meet the requirements of paragraph 2.8 of the Data Handling Report.
Departmental Foreign Workers
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) EU foreign nationals and (b) non-EU foreign nationals are employed by his Department. [256199]
Mr. Hoon:
There are a total of (a) 56 EU foreign nationals and (b) 27 non-EU foreign nationals employed in the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Vehicle Certification Agency
and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency. The Central Department, the Driving Standards Agency, the Government Car and Despatch Agency and the Highways Agency do not record these data separately and they can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Equality Impact Assessments
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many equalities impact assessments his Department has undertaken in the last 12 month period for which figures are available; and what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of such assessments. [255065]
Mr. Hoon: The Department for Transport and its agencies have carried out over 100 Equality Impact Assessments in the last 12 months and are in the process of setting up a system to accurately monitor all assessments going forward. A cost estimate could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish a copy of his Department’s website accessibility plan. [257225]
Mr. Hoon: The Department for Transport intends to comply with Level Double-A of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (version 1.0 or the version 2.0 equivalent) by December 2009.
A summary of the online accessibility plan/policy for the Department’s website:
Departmental Pay
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department has allocated for staff bonuses in 2008-09. [252258]
Mr. Hoon: The Department for Transport comprises a central Department plus seven executive agencies each with its own pay and reward system. Information regarding non-consolidated performance pay has been collected from the central Department and all seven agencies.
The Department has allocated £12,336,194 for non-consolidated performance payments to staff in 2008-09.
The total paybill for the Department for 2008-09 is £606,890,207. Non-consolidated performance payments represent 2.03 per cent. of the paybill.
Non-consolidated performance pay is funded within existing paybill controls and has to be re-earned each year against pre-determined targets. It is paid in respect of exceptional overall performance or exceptional performance on a specific task or at a specific time and, as such, does not add to future pay bill costs.
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Frank Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many language translators are employed in (a) each of his Department’s Executive agencies and (b) its non-Ministerial department; and
what the cost of translating services provided by such people was in the latest period for which information is available. [257145]
Mr. Hoon: The central Department and its agencies do not employ any staff specifically for translation purposes. However, when such services are required they will be procured on an ad hoc basis.
The cost of such services are shown in the following table.
| £ | |||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| (1) Data not available. (2) Data not available except at disproportionate cost. Note: Those for DfT(c) include interpretation as well as translation. Separate translation information could be provided only at disproportionate cost. | |||||
Information on translations provided by the Department’s non-departmental public bodies (b) is held by the bodies themselves. This information is not held centrally.
Fines
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what administrative financial penalties may be levied by his Department and its agencies. [253590]
Mr. Hoon: The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost. To answer this question fully would entail all policy units and agencies of the Department researching and providing the information.
Railways: Bus Services
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much has been spent on rail replacement bus services in the North East in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [257534]
Paul Clark: The Department for Transport does not hold this information.
Railways: Finance
Stephen Hammond:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 5 February 2009, Official Report, column 50WS, on rail services, whether the fund for the provision of rail services promoted by local authorities or passenger transport authorities will come from the rail budget; how many projects he estimates will meet his Department’s criteria for funding in this manner; what representations he has received from local authorities on the number of projects that are likely to meet his Department’s criteria; whether capital projects designed to enhance capacity on the rail network will
be applicable for such funding; and whether he plans to allow private sector organisations to bid for capital projects on the railways under the fund. [256765]
Paul Clark: A fund for supporting rail services initially funded by local authorities and passenger transport executives (PTEs) will be formally established at the time the high level output specification for the period 2014-19 is published in 2012. As the fund has only just been announced, we have yet to receive representations from local authorities and therefore have no precise number of the projects likely to meet the Department for Transport’s criteria for funding from this initiative in the period 2014-19. This fund does not include capital funding for projects. Local authorities and regions can already recommend to Ministers that regional funding allocations can be used for investment in rail schemes.
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