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12 Mar 2009 : Column 623W—continued
John Latham: Ben - (Five Photo Etchings) 20/30—etching
John Latham: Presumed Level of Abstraction (Five Photo Etchings) 20/30—etching
John Latham: Flat Time 1-10 (Neg) (Five Photo Etchings) 20/30—etching
Geraldine Brock: Prayer in an Eastern Garden—textile
Departmental Bank Services
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs with which banks his Department has or has had contracts for the provision of financial advice, for the financial year 2008-09. [262759]
Gillian Merron: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not have contracts for financial advice with banks, but has a contract with HiFX Intelligent Financial Services to ensure that advice received is independent.
Departmental Data Protection
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether his Department uses WPA2 encryption protocol on all its wireless networks. [259800]
Gillian Merron: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office follows the relevant governmental standards covering communication, security and cryptography for the encryption of data.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what auditing his Department undertakes to ensure that IT security policies are being followed; and on how many occasions (a) IT security policies have been breached by employees and (b) a member of staff has been sanctioned for a breach of such policies in the last 12 months. [259801]
Gillian Merron: Compliance arrangements comprise a system of self assessment, accreditation, assurance reporting, audit and review.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's IT security hierarchy. [259802]
Gillian Merron: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary will not place a copy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's IT security hierarchy in the Library.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what scanning for vulnerabilities his Department conducts of each of its IT devices; what method is used for IT device scans; and how many vulnerabilities have been detected as a result of such scans in the last 12 months. [259803]
Gillian Merron: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary will not provide a response to this question as it would undermine the security of the Department.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what IT security policy his Department has; what procedures are in place to ensure the policy is being followed; what his Department's policy is on encryption of data when they leave departmental premises; and what sanctions are in place for failure to comply with this policy. [259854]
Gillian Merron: Information is a key asset to the Government and their correct handling is vital to the delivery of public services and to the integrity of the Government. The Security Policy Framework, the Data Handling Report and the National Information Assurance Strategy produced by the Cabinet Office provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place a set of mandatory measures which Departments must adhere to.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is compliant with the security policies contained in the Government Security Policy Framework including those for information security and assurance.
Depending upon the circumstances, a range of sanctions are available including disciplinary or administrative action, and in extreme or persistent cases, termination of employment/services and, if appropriate, criminal proceedings.
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff in his Department have been subject to internal disciplinary procedures in relation to the use of religiously or racially offensive language during each of the last five years. [259000]
Gillian Merron: Central records show that to date no members of Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff have been subject to internal disciplinary procedures for using religiously or racially offensive language during each of the last five years.
I also refer the hon. Member to my written answer of 27 February 2009, Official Report, column 1206W.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff in his Department (a) were disciplined and (b) had their employment terminated as a result of a poor sickness record in each of the last 12 months. [262233]
Gillian Merron: No staff have been disciplined as a result of a poor sickness record. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) deals with sickness absence under a separate sickness absence management procedure.
The following numbers of UK-based staff have had their employment terminated under this procedure as a result of a poor sickness record in the FCO and FCO Services:
| Number | |
We do not hold records centrally of numbers of locally-engaged staff relevant to this question, and they could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Departmental ICT
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) of 22 July 2008, Official Report, columns 118-19W, on departmental ICT, what the (a) original expected cost was, (b) original expected delivery date was, (c) current expected cost is and (d) current expected completion date is of each ICT project listed; and if he will make a statement. [251285]
Gillian Merron: Several of the Information and Communication Technology Directorate contracts listed in the answer relate to support and maintenance, or are framework arrangements, rather than to the provision of new capabilities. Consequently the following contract values and dates cannot necessarily be related to specific projects.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
(1) Provision of Managed Website Statistics Service—Nedstad.
Value: £86,000 and term unchanged.
(2) Future Firecrest (new IT infrastructure) Consultancy—Tribal.
A framework agreement for consultancy, with no fixed value. Commenced May 2006.
(3) Online Missing Persons and Travellers Registration Software—Worldreach.
Value: £286,000 and term unchanged.
(4) Development of Ministerial Visits Co-ordination Database—Parity.
Value: £46,288 and term unchanged.
(5) Home Office Biometrics Framework—Steria.
A framework agreement for consultancy, with no fixed value. Commenced April 2007.
(6) FCO Web FCO external websites platform—Logica.
Software development and implementation at a cost of £6,115,000 due to complete September 2008; delivered December 2008 at no additional cost.
(7) FCONet 3 Intranet Development—Fujitsu.
Original contract covered 12 months effort at a cost of £580,000, commencing February 2008, a similar contract for a further 12 months is likely.
(8) FCONet 3 Intranet Support—Fujitsu.
£635,000 for three years' support and licensing, commencing February 2008; unchanged.
(9) Enterprise Agreement—Microsoft.
£6,900,000 for three years worldwide use of specified Microsoft products, starting March 2008; unchanged.
(10) Premier Support Agreement—Microsoft.
£349,000 for one year's support from January 2008; unchanged.
FCO Services
(1) Tempest Workstation, Peripheral Equipment and Support—API Europe.
Value: £1,000,000 and term (two years from May 2007, with option to extend) unchanged.
(2) Wider Internal Markets Hardware Support for UK/Overseas—Hewlett Packard.
Value: £330,000 and term (three years from January 2008) unchanged.
Wilton Park
(1) Contact Records Management system development—GN Software.
Framework contract commenced May 2008, with no fixed value. Current costs under contract are approximately £450 per month.
Departmental Marketing
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much has been spent by his Department on advertising in the last 12 months. [243898]
Gillian Merron: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's spending on advertising between 19 February 2008 and 18 February 2009 was £1,470,110.04.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisors
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much has been claimed in reimbursable expenses by special advisers in his Department in 2008-09 to date. [260355]
Gillian Merron: Costs incurred on reimbursable expenses in 2008-09 will be available only when the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s resource accounts are fully audited and laid before Parliament. This is expected to be before the 2009 summer recess.
Departmental Public Consultation
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many public consultations his Department has conducted in the last 12 months; how long each consultation was open for; how many responses were received in each case; and what the cost of conducting each consultation was. [259698]
Gillian Merron: This information is not held centrally, and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1240W, on departmental public expenditure, which activities have been (a) delayed in 2008-09 and (b) identified for delay in 2009-10; and what the estimated saving from each delay is. [261938]
David Miliband: Prioritising our work to deliver on our objectives is the responsibility of budget holders with devolved responsibility. This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, projects would be prioritised based on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Strategic Objectives.
Any delayed activity would be reassessed during the quarterly review process. This process is used to scrutinise and challenge spending in order to move money between spending areas to fund additional pressures.
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1240W, on departmental public expenditure, what his Department’s budget for costs of overseas posts was in each of the last five financial years. [261943]
David Miliband: The information on overseas post budgets for 2004-05 and 2005-06 are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Overseas post budgets for the past three financial years are highlighted as follows:
| £ million | |
| (1) Forecast. | |
The increase in the 2008-09 figure is due to uplift through the Overseas Pricing Mechanism less efficiency savings.
Departmental Surveys
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much his Department spent on staff surveys in each of the last five years; and which companies were contracted to carry out the surveys. [260145]
Gillian Merron: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has conducted the following staff surveys over the last five years.
2004 staff survey conducted by ‘NOP’. The contract value was £19,220. The actual spend information for this survey was not transferred successfully to the new FCO management information system. Answering this question by examining stored paper invoices would incur disproportionate cost.
2006 staff survey and two “mini” wave surveys conducted by ORC International. Actual spend was £36,320.
2007 staff survey conducted by ORC International. The actual spend was £35,004.
2008 staff survey conducted by ORC International. The actual spend to date is £25,373. The contract value is £40,500.
FCO Services (which became an Executive agency in April 2006 and acquired full trading fund status in April 2008) has conducted the following staff surveys over the last five years.
| Type of survey | Company | Spend (£) | |
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