Previous Section Index Home Page

12 Oct 2009 : Column 10W—continued

Voting Behaviour

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what recent assessment the Electoral Commission has made of voting behaviour at elections. [289569]

Mr. Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that it considers voter turnout and the take up of postal voting at elections as part of its annual election reports. However, it makes no assessment of voter intentions or behaviour in terms of support for political parties.

The Commission will publish its reports on the 2009 European parliamentary elections and local elections in England in October 2009. Reports on previous elections are available on the Commission's website:


12 Oct 2009 : Column 11W

Northern Ireland

Ambulance Services: Crimes of Violence

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) when he last met representatives of the Northern Ireland Fire Service to discuss attacks on their staff whilst on duty; [289265]

(2) when he last met with senior Ambulance Service officials to discuss attacks on their staff whilst on duty in Northern Ireland. [289266]

Paul Goggins: The PSNI is committed to bringing to justice those who carry out these abhorrent attacks. I have not met with senior officials or representatives from Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and Northern Ireland Ambulance Service recently. However, the Health Minister for Northern Ireland is aware of my continued concern for the well-being of emergency services staff

Arrests: Civil Disorder

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people were arrested during rioting in Ardoyne in North Belfast on 13 July 2009. [289284]

Paul Goggins: As this is an operational matter for the Chief Constable I have asked him to reply directly to the hon. Gentleman, and will arrange for a copy of the letter to be placed in the Library of the House.

Aviation: Meetings

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he last met Northern Ireland Executive Ministers to discuss a regional aviation strategy for Northern Ireland. [289264]

Paul Goggins: I have had no requests from Northern Ireland Executive Ministers for such a meeting. Civil aviation is a reserved matter and is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport.

Bomb Disposal

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many bomb devices have been defused by the Army Bomb Disposal Squad in Northern Ireland in the last (a) six and (b) 12 months. [289263]

Paul Goggins: Over the past (a) six and (b) 12 months Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel (EOD) have defused 23 and 56 live bomb devices respectively.

Departmental Advertising

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much his Department spent on newspaper advertising by publication in the latest year for which figures are available. [289478]

Mr. Woodward: The finance system of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) does not break down advertising expenditure in the detail requested; therefore these figures could be provided only at disproportionate cost.


12 Oct 2009 : Column 12W

Departmental Recycling

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what proportion of his Department's waste was recycled in the latest period for which figures are available. [289668]

Mr. Woodward: Complete data on what proportion of waste was recycled are not available. However, all buildings are involved in recycling. A cross-departmental recycling scheme on the Stormont estate, which covers a large proportion of Northern Ireland Office staff, shows an average recycling rate from June 2008 to May 2009 of 45 per cent.

We are constantly looking at ways to improve recycling rates, for example by providing recycling bins in each office, and new contracts are being put in place to extend the scope of recycling.

The latest assessment of Government's performance against these targets was published by the Sustainable Development Commission on 12 December 2008:

Departmental Responsibility

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which Minister in his Department has been assigned responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money in his Department; whether his Department has established a public sector reform team to implement service reforms; and if he will make a statement. [289735]

Mr. Woodward: My right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Northern Ireland (Paul Goggins) has been assigned responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money in the Northern Ireland Office.

The Northern Ireland Office is committed to reforming public services to improve services for the citizen and the Department has established a Business Performance Review Team (BPRT) to implement reforms. BPRT is working closely with colleagues in the centre of Government on this important agenda.

Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for which non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies he will continue to have responsibility in circumstances in which responsibility for policing is devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly. [291457]

Mr. Woodward: Those public bodies and their status which will be retained by the NIO at the point of devolution are as set out in the following table. While it is anticipated that parading will not devolve immediately, its future will be determined by the outcome of the Strategic Review of Parades chaired by Lord Ashdown.


12 Oct 2009 : Column 13W
Body Status

Crown Solicitor's Office

Legal Office

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Executive NDPB

Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland

Advisory NDPB

Sentence Review Commissioners

Independent Office Holders

Remission of Sentences Act Commissioners

Independent Office Holders

The Chief Electoral Officer

Independent Office Holder

The Civil Service Commissioners

Independent Office Holder

Independent Monitoring Commission

International Body

Independent International Commission on Decommissioning

International Body

Bloody Sunday Inquiry

Inquiry

Hamill Inquiry

Inquiry

Wright Inquiry

Inquiry

Nelson Inquiry

Inquiry

Office of the Surveillance Commissioner

Misc

Parades Commission

Executive NDPB

Reviewer of police and military powers under the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007

Independent Office Holder (NB Not yet appointed)

Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains

International Body


Departmental Training

John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many external training courses were attended by staff of his Department in the last 12 months; and what the cost was of each course. [289679]

Paul Goggins: The following table details external training courses attended by staff in the Northern Ireland Office in the last 12 months; and the associated cost for each course:


12 Oct 2009 : Column 14W

12 Oct 2009 : Column 15W

12 Oct 2009 : Column 16W
External training courses attended in 2008-09
External course Cost (£)

Accelerated SQL Server 2005

439

Acrobat Introduction

185

Advanced SAP System Monitoring-ADM106

1,800

Advanced Writing

775

Advocacy Course

1,100

AEP Net Technical Training

5,200

Analysis and Use of Evidence for Senior Managers

895

Anti Money Laundering

70

Basic Consultation Processes

305

Business Case Appraisal

900

CCTV User Group Seminar (x2 Staff)

938

CIPD

119

Civil Contingencies

411

Civil Procedure in the County Court

70

Communications and Marketing

500

CommVault v7 Training

2,373

Concepts in Accreditation

1,800

Contentious Costs

823

Contracts of Employment

20

Conveyance Workshop

70

CPD Technical Update

60

CPD Training

1,694

Crypto Custodian Course

395

Crystal Reports XI Level 1

439

Current Developments in Administrative Law

374

Customer Service Excellence

59

Data Protection Certificate

2,330

Deaf Awareness Training

500

Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace

1,512

Dealing with Negative Attitudes

228

Deaths in Hospitals

80

Delivering Project Excellence Seminar

80

Dell San Course Combo

8,000

Developing Applications using Visual Basic

396

Developing Future Managers

1,200

Disability Discrimination

20

Dods Parliamentary Communications

454

Drafting Statutory Instruments

865

Effective Briefing

1,365

Effective Manager 1

1,725

Effective Ministerial Correspondence

755

Effective Presentations for Senior Managers

1,620

Effective Speech Writing

1,350

Effective Writing

1,550

Effectively Tackle Reoffending

811

Employment Law in NI

70

Equality Law Update

907

Essential Media Skills

825

Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing

1,680

Executive PA Conference

2,026

Finance for Non-Financial Managers

1,414

First Aid Course

190

Gateway Review Team Member to Leader Workshop

400

Health and Safety

200

Helpdesk phone system course

550

High Court Litigation Seminar

60

How can we most effectively tackle reoffending

276

How Parliament Works

530

IFRS Prepare the shadow accounts

1,840

Immigration Law in Northern Ireland

375

Impact Assessment-Equality/Diversity in Policy Making and Service Delivery

440

Implementing the Taylor Reforms

734

Industrial Tribunal Case Law

40

Institute of Internal Auditors-MIIA Advanced Case Study Paper 4

1,069

Institute of Internal Auditors-MIIA revision workshop

588

Introduction to Audit

450

Introduction to Central Gov Finance

475

Introduction to Civil Protection

1,137

Introduction to Infosec

2,725

Introduction to Project Management

430

ISEB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing

1,752

IT Training

382

ITIL Foundation Course

1,590

ITIL Practitioner in Service Level Management

1,100

Land Law Reform Project

65

Lateral Thinking

156

Leadership and Team Building

293

Leadership Challenges for Women in Middle Management

1,145

Leadership Presence

1,395

Legal Professional Training

494

Legal Research On-Line Workshop

140

Libel and Defamation

70

M2261 Course

1,191

M2261 Win XP Ops System

857

M2262 Course

891

M2262 Win XP Ops System

569

M2273 Managing and Maintaining MS Windows Server

876

M2279 Planning, Implementing and Maintaining MS Server Active Directory

876

M2543 Core Web App Tech with M/S Visual Studio

876

M2547 Adv Windows Forms with MS Visual Studio

796

M2667 Intro to Programming

597

M2780 Maintaining MS SQL Server 2005 DB

3,104

M5047 Implementing and Managing MS Exchange 2007

1,752

Major Trauma and Drug Abuse

20

Management of Risk

1,940

Managing Operational Contracts

695

Managing Successful Programmes Foundation

960

Managing the passage of legislation

430

Managing time

410

Manual Handling Instructors' and Assessors'

1,029

Mental Health Law

315

Mental Health Law and Offender Patients

210

Microsoft Word

100

MIIA Distance learning study course

368

Mind Mapping

1,366

Minute Taking Course

1,330

Mortgage Fraud

90

Mortgage Repossessions

70

MS Access

592

MS Excel

200

MS Excel Intermediate

200

MS Project introduction

412

MS Word

100

MSE2K7 Exchange 2007 Accelerated Workshop

876

New Standards New Challenges

95

ORACLE database 10g administration workshop 2

2,321

Overview of Legislation

315

Parliament Government and the Civil Service

2,500

Parliamentary Questions

430

Personal Development for Disabled People

3,510

Personal Injury Litigation

90

PFI on-depth

224

Piloting your Bill through Parliament

240

Policing, Partnership and Accountability

1,102

Policy, Management and Research in the Historic House Sector

51

Political Intelligence

450

Practice and Procedure in the County Court

70

Preparing Business Cases

1,550

Preparing for an Industrial Tribunal

394

Pre-retirement Course

430

Presentation and Communication Skills

1,200

Presentation Skills

300

Presuming to Interpret

110

Preventing Violent Extremism

217

PRINCE2

755

PRINCE2 Foundation

3,475

Prince2 Managing Successful Projects

1,095

PRINCE2 Practitioner

2,740

PRINCE2 Re-Accreditation

1,657

Programme Management for Fast Stream

795

Programme Management Overview

905

Project Leadership

454

Project Management Survival Guide

2,611

Records Management Diploma

3,768

Resource Budgeting

518

Resource Budgeting Estimates to Accounts

900

Risk Management

834

SCS Base camp

2,000

SDI Service Desk Analyst Course

5,391

Shared experience from triggers 1 and 2

173

Sign Language Taster

150

Six Thinking Hats

902

Special Investigators Group

61

Stakeholder Engagement

1,720

Stress Recognition and Management

65

Sustainable development for decision makers

398

Tackling Difficult HR Issues

403

Thinking On Your Feet

385

Time Management

1,175

Transforming NI

398

Understanding NI Assembly

890

Visio

390

Visual Basic VB.Net Course

2,250

VM Ware Install and Configure Course

9,464

Workshop on Civil Recovery Orders

344

Writing Dynamics

6,776


Next Section Index Home Page