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12 Nov 2009 : Column 820W—continued
Christmas
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department spent on Christmas (a) cards, (b) parties and (c) decorations in the last 12 months. [299266]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) spent £1,567 + VAT on Christmas cards in the last 12 months.
Under DFID rules, no funds are spent on staff Christmas parties or decorations.
Crimes of Violence: Females
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much funding his Department plans to allocate in 2009-10 to tackling violence against women, broken down by recipient country. [299915]
Mr. Michael Foster: It is not possible to calculate a figure for funding commitments in 2009-10 to tackling violence against women, broken down by recipient country. Gender-based violence is addressed through many different approaches and programmes, according to country context and whether partners are focusing on preventing violence against women or responding to it.
Departmental Billing
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentage of invoices from suppliers his Department paid within 10 days of receipt in (a) September and (b) October 2009. [299559]
Mr. Michael Foster: The percentage of UK invoices paid within 10 days by the Department for International Development is as follows:
(a) 91 per cent. in September; and
(b) 95 per cent. in October.
Departmental contracts
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his Department's policy is on following established best practice in the management of tendering exercises. [299956]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: For all tenders for goods and services over the EU threshold the Department for International Development (DFID) follows the EU directives, as enshrined in UK Public Contract Regulations 2006.
For all tenders under the threshold DFID follows established best practice, in line with Office of Government Commerce guidance.
Departmental Contracts
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his policy is on the use of independent audits in the management of grants and contracts for which his Department is responsible. [299957]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: Where grants are provided, the Department for International Development (DFID) requires evidence about the use of funds through the receipt of annual audited accounts or through a special audited statement. Where DFID itself buys goods and services, no additional audit evidence is required but the invoices, supporting vouchers and documentation associated with the payment is used to confirm what the money has been spent on.
Departmental Data Protection
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether his Department's information assurance procedures have been subject to an independent audit. [299379]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development has been independently audited as mandated by the Cabinet Secretary's report into data handling processes across Government and the Security Policy Framework. All audits are in line with international standard ISO/IEC 27001:2005 for Information Security Management Systems, against which DFID has been certified.
Departmental ICT
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which organisations his Department has had exclusivity agreements with in respect of information technology (a) hardware and (b) software in each of the last five years; how many such agreements were breached in each year; and what the cost to his Department was of each breach. [298764]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development has had no exclusive agreements in relation to information technology hardware or software in the past five years.
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Ingram: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many established posts there were at each grade in his Department's offices in East Kilbride in each of the last five years. [298423]
Mr. Michael Foster: The numbers of established posts, by job grade, in the Department for International Development's (DFID's) East Kilbride office, for each year from 2005 to 2009, are shown in the following table:
| Number | |||||
| 31 March | |||||
| Job Grade | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the (a) staffing complement and (b) management structure is of his Department's Counter-Fraud Unit. [299954]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department's Counter-Fraud Unit has seven members of staff and is supplemented by external resources as required.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was claimed in reimbursable expenses by press officers in his Department and its agencies in 2008-09. [299283]
Mr. Michael Foster: We are unable to provide this information without incurring disproportionate cost.
All reimbursable expenses are made in accordance with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
Departmental Postal Services
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with which providers his Department had a contract to provide postal services in (a) 2007, (b) 2008, (c) between 1 January 2009 and 1 July 2009 and (d) since 1 July 2009. [299424]
Mr. Michael Foster: The only contracted postal service which the Department for International Development uses and has used throughout all the periods in question is a cross-Whitehall shared contract with TNT UK Ltd., which DFID uses for a direct delivery service between our two UK offices.
Departmental Procurement
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether there has been any nugatory cost to his Department on procurement under tender because the tender process had been cancelled prior to the award of the contract in the last 12 months. [299353]
Mr. Michael Foster: During the last 12 months the Department for International Development (DFID) has cancelled four tendered procurements prior to award of contract. DFID has made no payments to bidders in respect of nugatory work. The only costs are the staff resources we deployed on administering these processes. Records of these costs are not routinely disaggregated between each tender, and could not be calculated without disproportionate effort.
Departmental Statistics
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of the statistical datasets collected by his Department are published. [299665]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) publishes summary information on all its projects via its website. We are working on arrangements and a timetable for publishing further details of our projects. In doing so, we need to balance our commitment to transparency with the need to protect sensitive information, and the cost and practicality of publishing information in a usable format.
Further detail on individual UK aid programmes is provided to the Creditor Reporting System administered by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD). The underpinning datasets for the UK and other donors are available from the OECD website.
All of this information contributes to the annual DFID publication "Statistics on International Development". This publication is published in accordance with the requirements set out in the 'Code of Practice for Official Statistics' and the 'National Statistician's Guidance on the Presentation and Publication of Official Statistics'.
Developing Countries
Mr. Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions he has had on the role of scientists in policy-making in developing countries; and if he will make a statement. [298810]
Mr. Michael Foster: The role of scientists in policy making has not been the subject of any recent separate discussions but has been reflected in discussions on a wide range of thematic policy and research issues and has been a key component of recent discussions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Increasing our support for building the capacity to undertake and use research within our developing country partners was a key commitment in the Research Strategy 2008-13 launched last year and available on the Department for International Development (DFID) website:
Developing Countries: Childbirth
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's expenditure aimed at reducing the number of women dying in childbirth in developing countries. [299877]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) conducts an annual assessment of its progress towards key MDG targets at a country level based on international data. The assessment concentrates on progress in 22 developing countries where the UK's development assistance is mainly focused and where we expect to make the most impact.
The latest assessment was published in the 2008 Autumn Performance Report (copies of which are in the Parliamentary Library). A copy is available at:
The 2009 Performance Report is currently in preparation and will be laid before Parliament on 15 December 2009.
Developing Countries: HIV Infection
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much UK funding was (a) allocated to and (b) spent on tackling HIV/AIDS in developing countries in each of the last five years. [299938]
Mr. Michael Foster: We pledged an ambitious target of £1.5 billion for AIDS related expenditure from 2005 to 2008.
Details on DFID's expenditure on HIV and AIDS are produced as follows.
| DFID's estimated expenditure on HIV/AIDS activities | |
| HIV/AIDS Expenditure (£ millions) | |
More information on DFID expenditure can be found in Statistics on International Development 2009, which is available on-line at:
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