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7 Jan 2010 : Column 495W—continued
Cabinet Office
Central Office of Information: Procurement
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what criteria are used to assess a potential supplier to the Central Office of Information for inclusion on the list of approved suppliers; [307857]
(2) who the members are of the panel which approves suppliers to the Central Office of Information; [307858]
(3) what the names are of the approved suppliers to the Central Office of Information. [307859]
Angela E. Smith: I have asked the chief executive of the Central Office of Information to reply to the hon. Member.
Letter from Mark Lund, dated 6 January 2010:
As Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information (COI), I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions on the COI Suppliers (307857/8/9).
Central Office of Information (COI) has 29 lists of approved suppliers referred to in the Public Contract Regulations 2006 as framework agreements. As a public sector body, COI has to comply with the requirements outlined in the Regulations when setting up framework agreements. The list of framework agreements and the suppliers that sit on each can be found on the COI website at
The requirements and deliverables expected of suppliers on each framework agreement differs, however suppliers are assessed to ensure that they are capable of providing the services that the framework agreement is set-up to deliver and to ensure that value for money is achieved through quality of the service, their technical ability and price.
The members of the panel that carry out the assessment of suppliers onto each framework agreement differs for each but is typically made up of at least two technical experts and one procurement expert. The final list of suppliers is signed off by the Director of the area and the Commercial Director.
Government Departments: Security
Chris Huhne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been in respect of technical attacks through the internet on the computer systems of Government departments in each of the last three years. [307943]
Claire Ward: I have been asked to reply.
Statistical data held by the Ministry of Justice on the Court Proceedings Database record the number of defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales on a persons basis.
These data do not include information on the circumstances of an offence and it is therefore not possible to separately identify offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 that have resulted from unauthorised access to computer systems of Government Departments.
Non-departmental Public Bodies
Chris Huhne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office when she expects the report of the latest review of non-departmental Government bodies to be published. [309409]
Angela E. Smith: Cabinet Office produces an annual report on the size and spend of the non-departmental public body sector entitled "Public Bodies". Cabinet Office aims to publish "Public Bodies 2009" shortly.
Northern Ireland
AccessNI
Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) basic, (b) standard and (c) enhanced applications have been processed by AccessNI in each month since April 2008; and what percentage of applications in each category was completed within the performance target time. [309171]
Paul Goggins: It is not possible to provide information for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009 in the manner requested. During this period AccessNI processed 115,268 applications. It was unable to meet its service standards between May and December 2008, but did meet them between January and March 2009. Information for the period 1 April to 31 October 2009 is set out in the following table.
Clergy: Misconduct
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions he has had with (a) the Irish government, (b) the Roman Catholic Bishop's Conference of Ireland and Primate of Ireland and (c) the Papal Nuncio on the implications of the report of the Irish Commission of Inquiry into sex abuse and related misconduct by members of the clergy and religious orders for clergy and members of religious orders transferred to dioceses or religious houses in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [308061]
Paul Goggins: Northern Ireland Office Ministers have had no discussions on these matters, nor any requests to discuss them, with any of the parties specified.
Departmental Legislation
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what criminal offences have been (a) created and (b) abolished by secondary legislation sponsored by his Department since 1 May 2008. [307796]
Paul Goggins: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 7 December 2009, Official Report, column 21W, which considered primary legislation to include both Westminster Acts of Parliament and, for Northern Ireland, Orders in Council which would elsewhere be classified as secondary legislation. For the purposes of the current question I am therefore treating secondary legislation for Northern Ireland to cover statutory instruments excluding orders in Council.
Excluding agencies and non-departmental public bodies, the Northern Ireland Office has made four statutory rules which have made or repealed offences since 1 May 2008.
The Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008; the Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) (Amendment) Order 2009; and the European Parliamentary Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 2009 updated Northern Ireland electoral procedures. This brought them in line with changes made to UK electoral law by the Electoral Administration Act 2006 and included offences relating to voting and electoral registration procedures.
The Electoral Administration Act 2006 (Regulation of Loans etc: Northern Ireland) Order 2008 also provides for an offence of disclosing information contained in transaction reports in circumstances other than those set out in the order.
Transport
Cycling
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of (i) children and (ii) adults in (A) Stroud district, (B) Gloucestershire and (C) England who cycle regularly. [309140]
Mr. Khan: Estimates from the National Travel Survey suggest that, across England as a whole, 31 per cent. of children and 10 per cent. of adults regularly cycled (i.e. at least one bicycle trip per week) between 2006 and 2008.
Equivalent statistics for Gloucestershire and the Stroud district are not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, for urban areas with resident populations of between 25,000 and 50,000 (such as the town of Stroud), the equivalent estimates were 30 per cent. for children and 10 per cent. for adults.
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on (i) alcohol and (ii) entertainment in the last 12 months. [305531]
Chris Mole: Generally, the Department for Transport (DFT) operates a no alcohol policy. In exceptional cases, where the Department is holding a special event or staff are attending a venue away from their normal office and working long hours necessitating an evening meal, some limited provision of alcoholic drinks at public expense may be permitted at the discretion of a senior civil servant. Spend incurred in such situations is not centrally recorded and this information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, The Driving Standards Agency, Government Car and Despatch Agency, Highways Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Vehicle Certification Agency recorded zero expenditure on alcohol.
Entertainment costs are not recorded as a specific cost category within the Department for Transport's accounting systems. To identify such expenditure would incur disproportionate costs. However, the Government Car and Despatch Agency and Highways Agency have both recorded zero expenditure on entertainment.
Departmental Pay
Adam Afriyie:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport on what pay band his Department's chief information officer (CIO) is employed; whether the CIO is employed on a
fixed-term or permanent contract; and what the size is of the budget for which the CIO is responsible in the period 2009-10. [307558]
Chris Mole: The Department for Transport does not employ a full-time chief information officer. The role is split between the Director General and Director responsible, alongside wider policy responsibilities, for issues including information and knowledge management, data security, information and communication technology and knowledge management, in which they are supported by professional staff in the central Department and its agencies. There is no centrally managed budget for CIO activity. The budget for 2009-10 for the Information Management Directorate for ICT in the central Department was £13.5 million.
Driving Under Influence: Drugs
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what assessment his Department has made of effectiveness of the recent advertisements on the dangers of drug driving. [309537]
Paul Clark: The Department for Transport usually assesses the effectiveness of its advertising in three ways:
The effect on individuals' awareness, motivation and claimed behaviours, which we measure through quantitative and qualitative research.
Progress against indicators such as in the case of our THINK! road safety campaign, the number of people killed or seriously injured.
How effectively it buys media space. Analysis by independent media auditors benchmarks the Government's performance against private sector advertisers. Collectively, the Government are an efficient purchaser of media.
The THINK! Drug Drive advertising campaign ran from 17 August to 13 September 2009. The Department has not yet received or assessed all of the data listed above. However, research, including pre-campaign and post-campaign tracking surveys and website statistics, provides early indicators that the campaign has performed well against its core objectives including raising awareness of the risks of drug-driving.
East Coast Railway Line
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether his Department intends to make an assessment of the likely effect on public finances of retaining the East Coast Main Line in the public sector. [309323]
Chris Mole: When rail franchises are let, the Department for Transport routinely prepares a "shadow bid" to provide a detailed estimate of the likely costs and revenues of the new franchise. In the case of the next Inter City East Coast franchise, this evaluation will be based on the costs and revenues of the current public sector train operator.
Local Government: Snow and Ice
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Local Government Association and (b) local authorities on the contingency plans of local authorities in respect of extreme weather conditions. [309538]
Mr. Khan: The most recent discussions I have held with the Local Government Association on local authorities' contingency plans in respect of extreme weather conditions were on 4 January 2010. Department for Transport officials are also in regular contact and discussion with the Local Government Association on these matters.
Lorries: Road Traffic
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many miles heavy goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes travelled on dual carriageways in England in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what information his Department holds on the equivalent figures for (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) Northern Ireland. [308560]
Paul Clark [holding answer 6 January 2010]: The estimated miles travelled by heavy goods vehicles on dual carriageways in England, Wales and Scotland in 2008 is shown in the following table.
Road network information for dual carriageways is not available for Northern Ireland.
| Heavy goods vehicles | |
| Billion vehicle miles | |
| Source: National Road Traffic Survey (2008). | |
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