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24 Apr 2009 : Column 973W—continued
Leader of the House
European Parliament: Allowances
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Leader of the House whether she made an assessment of the system of daily allowance payments used by the European Parliament before deciding to propose a system of per diem payments for hon. Members. [270834]
Chris Bryant: A range of systems in operation in other Parliaments and Assemblies have been considered.
Northern Ireland
Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry: Legal Costs
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answer of 30 March 2009, Official Report, columns 851-52W, on the Bloody Sunday Tribunal Inquiry, for what reasons the legal costs for February 2009 differ in comparison with the other months listed. [271028]
Mr. Woodward: I am advised that the legal costs for the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in the month of February 2009 were higher than in previous months due to the payment of various outstanding legal fees.
Departmental ICT
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the (a) energy consumed by, (b) energy cost of and (c) carbon dioxide emissions from each category of IT device in each division of his Department in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [269543]
Paul Goggins: Currently such information is not available. However, the Northern Ireland Office is undertaking work, in line with its Green ICT Strategy, to establish its baseline for the energy consumed, its cost and emissions by ICT equipment. Initially, attention has been focused on server rooms, and monitoring equipment is being installed to measure energy consumption from which other information can be derived. As the Northern Ireland Office does not have separate electrical circuits for ICT equipment in offices, the measurement of energy consumption will be based on using a ‘ready reckoner’ across the Department and the information extrapolated. The Northern Ireland Office has no historical information on the energy consumed, its cost or CO2 emissions in each of the last five years.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps his Department has taken to address the effect on levels of carbon dioxide emissions from his Department of its ICT purchases since the publication of the Greening Government ICT Strategy; and if he will make a statement. [269565]
Paul Goggins: The Northern Ireland Office has a Green ICT Strategy in place, derived from the Cabinet Office ‘Greening Government ICT’ strategy. The Northern Ireland Office Board is committed to implementing the strategy's 51 recommendations, where practicable. To date, 29 recommendations have already been addressed or are under active consideration, including a commitment that new ICT equipment will comply with at least one of the green energy standards. This is now incorporated into all centralised procurement framework agreements.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the average server capacity utilisation by each division of his Department was in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [269593]
Paul Goggins:
Figures are only available for the financial year 2008-09 in which the average server utilisation in
the Northern Ireland Office was 12 per cent. This is the sort of level to be expected from the current system and it is a limitation of the design/technology available when it was implemented in 2004. The equipment is still in use since the Northern Ireland Office has sought to extend the lifecycle as recommended in the Cabinet Office Greening ICT strategy. However, the Department has also been testing new replacement technologies known collectively as ‘virtualisation’, and future refreshes of our internal network will implement this new technology to achieve the recommended 50 per cent. server utilisation.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what proportion of IT products in each category procured for each division of his Department were compliant with the Government's Buy Sustainable-Quick Win standard in the latest year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [269636]
Paul Goggins: The following table provides details of the IT products purchased by the Northern Ireland Office in the financial year 2008-09 and indicates the proportion compliant with the Government's Buy Sustainable-Quick Win standard. These figures relate to the core Department only.
| IT products | Number purchased | Proportion compliant with standard (percentage) |
| (1) The current vendor has not yet been assessed against the standard. | ||
Revenue and Customs: Londonderry
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many pension credit applications submitted to HM Revenue and Customs in Londonderry are logged as lost or misplaced. [270061]
Paul Goggins: My Department does not hold this information, which is the responsibility of the Social Security Agency of the Department of Social Development in Northern Ireland.
Weapons
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent discussions he has had with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning on the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons; and if he will make a statement. [269714]
Paul Goggins: We are in regular contact with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). The IICD is confident that they are making meaningful progress toward the decommissioning of loyalist weapons and will report again in August.
Olympics
Olympic Games 2012: Construction
Tom Brake: To ask the Minister for the Olympics how many people have undertaken training to NVQ skills level (a) one and (b) two as part of the construction project on the Olympic Park. [259331]
Tessa Jowell: Through the London Development Agency's Local Employment and Training Framework (LETF), delivered by the five Olympic host boroughs in partnership with the Olympic Delivery Authority, 3,446 local residents have been given Olympic-related skills training. This has included direct construction training such as plant, civils, rail and steelwork, as well as preliminary construction-related training such as site security. Training provision is based on specific forecasted demand for the skills requirements of the Olympic Park and Village and other local construction projects such as the Stratford City development and the East London Line Extension project.
The LDA uses three main training categories; Skills Basic, Skills Other and Skills Level 2. Skills Basic is equivalent to literacy, numeracy or ESOL at Entry Level 3 and above; Skills Level 2 is broadly equivalent to NVQ Level 2; Skills Other is formed of training between Skills Basic and Level 2, and this qualification has been specifically designed for use by the five host boroughs to deliver a range of short entry level courses based on the expressed requirements of employers.
For the year 2008-09, by the end of quarter 3 there had been 1,458 Skills Other trainees and 147 Skills Level 2 trainees. Of these, 665 trainees, all of who were previously unemployed, had already moved into new jobs. Activity has continued into January, February and March, and the next LETF update to cover the full year will be available on 1 May 2009. The numbers receiving training during 2007-08 were 1,749 Skills Other and 65 Level 2, and for 2006-07 (commencing late autumn) the numbers receiving training were 764 Skills Other, but no Level 2s.
Prime Minister
Ministers’ Interests
Mr. Maude: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 12 March 2009, Official Report, column 28WS, on list of Ministers’ interests, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Cabinet Secretary’s guidance on blind trusts. [270213]
Norman Baker: To ask the Prime Minister (1) if he will direct all Ministers who hold assets in blind trusts to name (a) the executors of those trusts and (b) the monetary value of the assets transferred to the trust at the time of their appointment; [270876]
(2) if he will make it his policy that blind trusts operated on behalf of Ministers shall be managed by the Public Trustee. [270998]
The Prime Minister: The Ministerial Code sets out the processes for handling Ministers’ financial interests.
Queen Elizabeth II: Anniversaries
Bob Russell: To ask the Prime Minister what plans he has for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Her Majesty the Queen; and if he will make a statement. [271058]
The Prime Minister: The Government are in discussions with the Royal Household as to how to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen in 2012.
Public Accounts Commission
Government Departments: Accountancy
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chairman of the Public Accounts Commission with reference to paragraph 5.5 of the Ministerial Code, on how many occasions since May 1997 departmental accounting officers have written to the Comptroller and Auditor General following a written instruction from a Minister to take an action which the Accounting Officer considered would breach the requirements of propriety or regularity. [269928]
Mr. Alan Williams: Paragraph 5.5 of the Ministerial Code refers to ministerial directions, which may arise in respect of Accounting Officers' concerns about propriety, regularity or value for money. The Comptroller and Auditor General has confirmed that there have been nine directions in relation to propriety and regularity notified to him since May 1997, as set out in the following table:
Scotland
Departmental Energy
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what recent progress his Department has made towards the target of increasing its energy efficiency per square metre of its Estate by 15 per cent. by 2010, relative to 1999-2000 levels; and if he will make a statement. [266872]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office is part of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice's energy use is included in the Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) returns which are published by the Sustainable Development Commission.
Departmental ICT
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the (a) energy consumed by, (b) energy cost of and (c) carbon dioxide emissions from each category of IT device in each division of his Department in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [269544]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office has not made separate estimates of the (a) energy consumed by, (b) energy cost of and (c) carbon dioxide emissions from each category of IT device in each division of the Department in each of the last five years. The Scotland Office shares an information and communications technology system (SCOTS) with the Scottish Government which is responsible for the development, administration, and maintenance of the system including the provision of hardware. The Scottish Government are complying with the same standards as those set out in the Greening Government ICT Strategy.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps his Department has taken to address the effect on levels of carbon dioxide emissions from his Department of its ICT purchases since the publication of the Greening Government ICT Strategy; and if he will make a statement. [269566]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office shares an information and communications technology system (SCOTS) with the Scottish Government which is responsible for the development, administration, and maintenance of the system including the provision of hardware. The Scottish Government are complying with the same standards as those set out in the Greening Government ICT Strategy.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the average server capacity utilisation by each division of his Department was in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [269592]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office shares an information and communications technology system (SCOTS) with the Scottish Executive which is responsible for the development, administration, and maintenance of the system including the provision of hardware. As part of the SCOTS Technology Refresh Project the MS Exchange/Outlook mailbox servers are being consolidated into a new central Data Centre at the end of April 2009. For 2008 the overall average server capacity utilisation was 77 per cent.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many (a) printers and (b) multi-function devices with printing functions were in use in each division of his Department in each of the last five years; how many such devices had a function enabling two-sided printing; and if he will make a statement. [269600]
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