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25 Feb 2009 : Column 829W—continued
Broadband: West Yorkshire
John Battle: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) how many households have access to broadband in (a) Leeds West constituency, (b) Leeds Metropolitan area and (c) West Yorkshire; [255470]
(2) what estimate his Department has made of the number of households with (a) a computer and (b) access to broadband in Leeds West constituency. [255477]
Mr. McFadden: The matter raised is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to my right hon. Friend. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Caio Review
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on what date the Caio Review was commissioned; and on what date it reported. [247420]
Mr. McFadden: The Caio Review was announced on 22 February 2008 and its findings published on 12 September 2008, in the report “The Next Phase of Broadband UK: Action now for long term competitiveness” at:
and the Government published a formal response to the Caio report on 29 January alongside the Digital Britain Interim Report:
Company Liquidations
Mr. Vara: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many companies have gone into liquidation (a) in each of the last 10 financial years and (b) in 2008-09 to date in (i) North West Cambridgeshire constituency, (ii) Cambridgeshire, (iii) the East of England and (iv) England and Wales. [257459]
Mr. McFadden: The following table shows the number of company liquidations in the last 10 financial years for England and Wales. Corporate liquidation statistics are not currently available on a regional basis within England and Wales.
Departmental Manpower
Greg Clark: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many staff were employed in his Department's Energy Change Group on 1 October 2008. [255936]
Mr. McFadden: On 1 October 2008, 536 full-time equivalent staff were employed in the Department's Energy Group.
Departmental Pay
Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much has been spent by his Department on staff reward and recognition schemes since its inception. [248717]
Mr. McFadden: The Department has a non-pay rewards scheme where staff or teams are given incentives in the form of gifts in recognition of one-off achievement and performance. These do not exceed £50 in value. These gifts can also be given as part of awards ceremonies in recognition of team performance and achievement in the Department. Since the creation of BERR in June 2007, £59,981 has been spent on these.
Mrs. May: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working at his Department and its agencies in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008; and what was spent on such bonuses in each of those years. [249850]
Mr. McFadden: The former Department of Trade and Industry (up to June 2007) and the Department for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform paid non-consolidated non-pensionable performance awards to staff in the senior civil service to reward delivery of business objectives and personal contributions to wider organisational goals. Performance related awards are part of the pay system across the whole senior civil service, and are used to reward high performance sustained throughout the year, based on a judgement of how well an individual has performed relative to their peers.
The performance related pay scheme is designed to help drive high performance and support better public service delivery.
| Number of SCS awarded performance bonuses | Total amount (£) | |
| (1) 7.6 per cent. of the SCS paybill (2) 8.6 per cent. of the SCS paybill | ||
The senior salaries review body (SSRB) makes recommendations each year for the amount Departments may allocate to bonuses. In 2007 the median bonus was £6,000; in 2008 the median was £6,250.
Departmental Public Relations
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with reference to the Answer to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), of 6 October 2008, Official Report, columns 270-01W, on departmental public relations, on which projects the external public relations and marketing companies worked; and for what reasons the work was not undertaken by departmental staff in each case. [252451]
Mr. McFadden: This Department used companies from the Central Office of Information’s Public Relations Framework for the following areas of work in the last three full financial years:
| Company | Area of work | Amount spent (£) |
| (1) April to June 2007 as DTI and BERR from June 2007. (2) Spend by the former DTI. Note: These costs are inclusive of COI fees. | ||
In all cases, PR agencies were employed to carry out work for which there was no available in-house resource. PR campaigns by their nature are time-limited and so it would not be cost-efficient to retain staff internally to run them. Contracting outside agencies also enables the Department to gain external specialist expertise as well as supporting the creative industries. PR contracts are placed taking account of Cabinet Office Propriety Guidance.
Departmental Recruitment
Justine Greening: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many new recruits his Department took on in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07, (c) 2007-08 and (d) 2008-09; how many of these were taken on as (i) permanent, (ii) temporary and (iii) agency staff; and what estimate he has made of the equivalent figures for (A) 2009-10 and (B) 2010-11. [254470]
Mr. McFadden: The number of new recruits(1) that joined the Department for the financial years requested are listed in the following table.
| Year joined | ||||
| Status type | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| (1) New recruits represent staff that have joined BERR or its predecessor DTI and excludes our executive agencies. (2) Permanent new recruits are staff employed by the Department on a permanent civil service contract. (3) Temporary new recruits are staff that have been recruited on a short term or fixed term civil service contract. | ||||
With respect to estimates for the years 2009-10 and 2010-11, we cannot give forecasts of future staff recruitment as this is dependant on the needs of the business which at present is fluid.
Agency staff are new recruits that have joined the Department but are not on a civil service contract and are employed by a third party. The arrangements for employing agency staff in the Department are delegated locally to line management units. To provide such information could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Insolvency
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many pre-pack administrations there have been in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) the North East and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in the last 12 months. [257515]
Mr. McFadden: There is insufficient information held centrally, and in a readily available format, to provide an answer to this question. This is because:
Corporate insolvency statistics are not currently available at a sub national level.
Statistics are not currently available on the number of pre-pack administrations.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Burns: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Chelmsford of 27 November 2008 on his constituent, Mr. Russ Harrington of Broomfield, Chelmsford. [256516]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 12 February 2009]: I responded to the hon. Member on 5 February 2009.
North East Economic Forum: Finance
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what funding (a) his Department and (b) One North East has provided to the North East Economic Forum in the last 12 months. [257549]
Mr. McFadden:
The Department has provided no direct funding to the North East Economic Forum. During the 12 months, February 2008 to January 2009, One North East provided £112,640 to the North East
Economic Forum for costs associated with two major regional conferences and a number of associated events.
The aforementioned figure includes:
Contribution to the costs of the 2007 Annual Conference, various associated events, workshops and networking events which was invoiced in 2008.
Contribution to the costs of the 2008 Annual Conference held on 5 December 2008, various associated events, workshops and networking events.
Skills Event in July 2008.
Energy Event on 14 November 2008.
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