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10 Dec 2009 : Column 524W—continued
Work and Pensions
Motability
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many vehicles were (a) purchased by and (b) leased by people resident in (i) Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency, (ii) the Highlands, (iii) Scotland and (iv) England and Wales under the Motability Scheme in each of the last five years. [304669]
Jonathan Shaw: Motability is an independent charitable company and is responsible for the administration of the Motability Scheme. They have written separately to the hon. Member with such information as they have available.
New Deal for Young People
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer of 11 November 2009, Official Report, column 583W, on work experiences: young people, how many places were available on each option in the New Deal for Young People in each of the last 24 months. [302239]
Jim Knight: The availability of places on the new deal for young persons is demand-led; therefore the new deal providers ensure there are sufficient placements to meet the needs of Jobcentre Plus customers requiring the support given by any particular option.
New Deal Schemes
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many bids her Department has received for Flexible New Deal Phase 2 contracts; and how many full-time equivalent staff in her Department are responsible for analysing and evaluating bids submitted for Phase 2 Flexible New Deal contracts. [304539]
Jim Knight: To date, the Department has not received any bids. The deadline for flexible new deal phase 2 bids to be submitted to DWP is 6 January 2010.
The number of full-time equivalent staff likely to be involved in the evaluation will be influenced by the number of tenders that are actually returned and will include staff from across several expert domains.
Remploy: Public Relations
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what payments Remploy has made to (a) Portland PR and (b) Greenhause Public Communication in each of the last three years; for what purposes; and if she will place in the Library a copy of the contract under which such payments have been made. [302301]
Jonathan Shaw: Remploy has made total payments to Portland PR of £174,680 between 2007 and 2009.
In 2007-08 the amount was £160,665 for public affairs strategy and communications work. £35,000 of this spend was specifically for factory closure communications.
In 2008-09 the amount spent was £14,015 for the public affairs strategy and communications programme.
In 2007 Remploy made a payment to Greenhause Public Communication to a total of £12,277.50. This was paid for public affairs work.
Scotland
Departmental Freedom of Information
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 his Department received in 2008; and how many of these received a substantive response within 20 days. [305490]
Ann McKechin: Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice on Freedom of Information in central Government for 2008 show that of a total of 111 non-routine requests received by the Department (based on aggregated quarterly data) 71 per cent. (79) received a substantive response within 20 days. 78 per cent. (87) of requests were dealt with 'in time', that is within 20 days by meeting the deadline or other permitted extension deadline.
The statistics can be found on the Ministry of Justice website at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/freedomof informationquarterly.htm
and copies are available in the Library.
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department spent on (a) alcohol and (b) entertainment in the last 12 months. [305532]
Ann McKechin: The information is not held in the form requested; however, in 2008-09 the Scotland Office spent £15,158 on hospitality.
Departmental Publicity
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department has spent on (a) Ministerial photoshoots and (b) production of videos in which Ministers appear in the last three years for which figures are available. [305524]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office has incurred no expenditure on ministerial photoshoots or production of videos in the last three years.
Departmental Written Questions
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many questions tabled for answer on a named day his Department received in each of the last 12 months; and to how many such questions his Department provided a substantive answer on the day named. [305383]
Ann McKechin: Details of the number of questions tabled for answer on a named day and those that received a substantive answer on the day named are shown in the following table:
| Number of named day questions tabled | Percentage of named day questions that received a substantive answer on the day named | |
Central guidance on answering parliamentary questions is now available in the "Guide to Parliamentary Work", at:
In the response to the Procedure Committee Report on written parliamentary questions, the Government accepted the Committee's recommendation that Departments be required to provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics in a standard format on the time taken to respond to written parliamentary questions, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum setting out any factors affecting their performance. This will be taken forward as soon as possible.
Hotels
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Department spent on hotel accommodation for (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in each of the last five years. [305655]
Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office does not separately record expenditure on hotel accommodation from other forms of subsistence such as meal allowances, day subsistence, incidental expenses and motor mileage.
All travel and subsistence is conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Ministerial Code, Travel by Ministers and the Civil Service Management Code.
House of Commons Commission
Department of Resources: Finance
Mr. Chope: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how much money was owed to the House of Commons Department of Resources by (a) hon. Members, (b) Officers of the House and (c) the Press Gallery Committee for expenditures incurred on catering and retail goods and services on 1 September 2009. [302830]
Nick Harvey:
It is not possible to provide the figures requested as at 1 September, except at disproportionate cost. This is because the database changes every day and the figures are only readily available if the data for a
particular day have been retained. Reconstructing the data for a past day for which the data have not been retained would be an extremely time-consuming exercise involving a lot of manual adjustments to the data.
Speaker's Adviser
Kate Hoey: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission whether Mr. Speaker's special adviser has claimed any expenses for travel since his appointment. [305840]
Nick Harvey: No expenses of any kind have been claimed.
Culture, Media and Sport
Creativity and Business International Network: Finance
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of his budget for c&binet for 2009-10 was spent on the event held at The Grove between 26 and 28 October 2009. [305622]
Mr. Bradshaw: The gross costs of planning and staging the event at The Grove accounted for approximately 40 per cent. of the budget allocated to c&binet during 2009-10. The investment to develop a network of key professionals in the creative industries also contributed to the success of the event. DCMS is currently in discussions with private sector companies to take forward the project. This has allowed us to reduce the overall budget from £3 million to £2 million over the period 2008-09 to 2010-11.
Departmental Sick Leave
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many days of sick leave were taken by staff in his Department and its agency in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available; and what the cost to his Department was of such sick leave. [305556]
Mr. Simon: The information is as follows:
| Number of working days lost due to sickness during the period from 1 December 2008 to 30 November 2009 | |||
| DCMS | The Royal Parks | Total | |
| Cost of sickness for the period from 1 December 2008 to 30 November 2009 | |||
| £ | |||
| DCMS | The Royal Parks | Total | |
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