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15 May 2009 : Column 1050W—continued
Civil Service
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the mechanisms are for reviewing the content of the Civil Service Code; and if he will make a statement. [274617]
Mr. Watson: The Civil Service Code is kept under review and is updated as and when required.
Copies of the Civil Service Code are available in the Library of the House and available at
Departmental Contracts for Services
Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster which services his Department has outsourced in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [274454]
Kevin Brennan: Information regarding contracts for the provision of estates management and corporately provided information and communications technology (ICT) which have been outsourced over the past five years, and the year that they were outsourced, are as follows:
Telephone service management (2007);
Security guarding services, not previously outsourced (2007).
Centrally held records do not show any other services being outsourced over that period.
Departmental Correspondence
Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what procedure his Department follows for dealing with complaints received (a) by e-mail, (b) by post, (c) by telephone and (d) via his Department's website. [274531]
Mr. Watson: The complaints handling procedure for the Cabinet Office is available on the Cabinet Office website at:
A copy has been placed in the Library of the House.
Departmental ICT
Jenny Willott: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 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. [269578]
Mr. Watson: The majority of servers used by my Department are supplied under our current ICT contract by Fujitsu services. The Cabinet Office possesses fileserver storage used mainly for the storage of documents and databases. The amount used over the past four years is as follows:
| December | ||||
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
We have no information about the server capacity utilisation in 2004.
The Department also has a small number of servers used for the operation of its e-mail system. The volatile nature of the e-mail traffic and the need to keep real-time backups, mean that these servers provide optimum performance at less than 20 per cent. capacity.
The Department has recently instituted a policy of moving to storage area networking (SAN) devices. These allow several applications to share a server and so make much more efficient use of its capacity. Our current SAN has a utilisation rate of 80 per cent.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 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. [269601]
Mr. Watson: On 17 July 2008, I launched the Greening Government ICT Strategy. Its aim is to reduce the environmental impact of the computer systems employed by all Government bodies. In the strategy, one important target is to reduce the overall number of printers used by an organisation and replace them with multi-function devices (MFDs) where security issues allow. The MFDs should use green printing defaults wherever possible.
The Department has used the following number of multi-function devices with printing functions and printers during the past five years.
| December | MFDs | Printers |
All multi-functional devices are capable of two-sided printing, and indeed are set up to do so as the default.
Since 2003, my Department has had a policy of installing multi-user MFDs as the main device for printing. A number of printers have been retained, but they are only used where there are specific business reasons.
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many (a) BlackBerrys and (b) other mobile telephones have been provided to (i) Ministers, (ii) special advisers and (iii) civil servants in (A) the Cabinet Office and (B) the Prime Minister's Office in each year since 2005. [268282]
Mr. Watson: The number of mobile phones purchased by the Cabinet Office in each year since 2005 are shown as follows:
| Number | |
At April 2009 the Cabinet Office has 198 BlackBerrys in use. Records of when these were purchased are not held centrally so the information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Our records do not differentiate between mobile devices supplied to Ministers, special advisers and civil servants.
The Prime Minister’s Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.
Departmental Official Hospitality
Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much his Department has spent on (a) conference services and (b) banqueting services in each of the last five years. [274512]
Kevin Brennan: Information relating to spend on conference and banqueting services is not held centrally and therefore is available only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Safety
Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much his Department spent on compliance with requirements of health and safety at work legislation in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [274549]
Kevin Brennan: Information relating to spend on health and safety for each of the last five years is not held centrally and therefore is available only at disproportionate cost.
Government Departments: Data Protection
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will discuss with the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform the implications for handling sensitive data of the overseas ownership of suppliers of services to BT under its contract for handling sensitive Government IT systems. [272398]
Mr. Watson: All communications services providers supplying services to Government must comply with the appropriate security standards as determined by Government Departments in their information risk management and protective security policies.
Regular discussions take place between Ministers and officials across government as appropriate to address information security and assurance requirements and policies for Government.
Government Departments: Press Releases
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether the (a) issue and (b) content of departmental press releases is subject to a code of conduct. [273263]
Mr. Watson: All Government communications activity is subject to strict propriety guidance, which, along with the Civil Service Code, defines how civil servants can properly and effectively present Government policies and programmes.
Copies of the communication propriety guidance have been placed in the Library of the House, copies of the Civil Service Code are available in the Library of the House and can be found at:
Local Government: Standards
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who monitors the performance of local authorities under the (a) Customer Service Excellence and (b) Charter Mark schemes. [273254]
Mr. Watson: Cabinet Office is the owner of the customer service excellence and charter mark schemes. Cabinet Office licenses four independent certification bodies to provide assessment processes for customer service excellence and charter mark. The certification bodies are the sole decision makers in the process of certifying organisations as CSE or charter mark holders. They manage all matters relating to the ongoing suitability and status of holders in local government and other sectors.
Ministers: Costs
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will estimate the average annual cost to each Department of (a) a Secretary of State, (b) a Minister of State and (c) a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the last 12 months. [273142]
Mr. Watson [holding answer 7 May 2009]: Instruction on the reporting of the remuneration of Government Ministers is set out by HM Treasury in the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM). Under this guidance, information on ministerial salaries is provided in the remuneration section of Departments' annual Resource Accounts, copies of which are in the Library of the House.
Ministers: Data Protection
Mr. Evans:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many security breaches involving confidential documents left (a) on public transport
and (b) elsewhere involved (i) Cabinet Ministers and (ii) advisers to Cabinet Ministers in each of the last three years. [271007]
Mr. Watson: It is for individual Departments to collate information on security breaches within their Departments.
Pensions
Mr. Baron: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much revenue he expects to accrue to the Exchequer from the application of the correct pension increases for pensioners in the five schemes affected by the incorrect indexation of the guaranteed minimum pension in the next 12 months. [271528]
Mr. Watson: Pensions and other benefits paid from the pension schemes concerned are accounted for in the annual Resource Accounts for the schemes. Resource Accounts for the year 2009-10 will be published following the end of the year in question.
Strategy Committee
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the reasons were for the formation of the Cabinet Office's Strategy Committee; when it was established; on whose authority the committee was established; what its objectives are; who its members are; how often it has met; and if he will make a statement. [274183]
Kevin Brennan: There is no such committee within the Cabinet Office.
Electoral Commission Committee
Electoral Register
Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what estimate the Electoral Commission has made of the proportion of unregistered voters who are functionally illiterate. [275408]
Sir Peter Viggers: The Commission informs me that it has made no estimate of the proportion of unregistered voters who are functionally illiterate.
However, the Commission’s 2005 report, “Understanding electoral registration”, found a correlation between under-registration and those with no educational qualifications. This correlation is more pronounced for the younger age groups, with non-registration approximately 8 per cent. among 18 to 34-year-olds who hold some form of educational qualification and 15 per cent. for those reporting no qualifications.
Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what steps the Electoral Commission is taking to assist functionally illiterate people to register to vote. [275409]
Sir Peter Viggers:
The Commission informs me that it issues guidance to electoral registration officers (EROs) on providing assistance to people with low levels of
literacy, and that it includes as part of its performance standards framework a requirement that EROs ensure that the registration process is straightforward and accessible for electors.
The Commission provides materials to help EROs and community groups to communicate with people with literacy or learning difficulties, and also funds, through its partnership grants programme, projects to increase registration among people with learning disabilities.
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