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23 Feb 2010 : Column 517W—continued
Over the five years to April 2009, the amount of energy used by NWML at Teddington, expressed as KWh, was:
| Electricity | Gas | |
| (1) No reliable figures available. (2) Part year. | ||
Over the last five years our records indicate that the cost of energy to NWML at Teddington was:
| £ | ||
| Electricity | Gas | |
Electricity is supplied via a National Physical Laboratory (NPL) contract. Sub-metering to allow an accurate recharge of electricity costs was introduced in February 2006. The low expenditure figure in 2006-07 reflects the application of 'credits' resulting from settlement of a dispute over electricity charges in earlier years.
Gas was supplied and invoiced directly to NWML and that continues to be the case with NMO.
The above costs are inclusive of VAT, any standing charges and climate change levy applied to the invoices.
Under the NPL electricity contract 5 per cent. of the energy is generated from renewable sources.
I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 9 February 2010, UIN 317238, to the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
From June to December 2009, the last month for which figures are available, Companies House has consumed the following amounts of energy:
| Amount (kwh) | Cost (£) | |
Companies House procures green electricity which supports electricity generated from renewable sources under the Government's climate change levy exemption scheme.
Letter from John Alty, dated 16 February 2010:
I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 09 February 2010, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Energy usage by the Intellectual Property Office is as follows:
a) 2,800,817 kwh, at a cost of b) £234,000.
This usage was between 1st June 2009 (date of establishment of BIS was 5th June 2009) and 31st December 2009. None of the energy used during this period was from renewable sources.
These figures are a total of the electricity and gas used at the IPO's Concept House and Nine Mile Point sites in South Wales. They exclude the IPO's Bloomsbury Street offices in London where the IPO is billed as part of a maintenance charge.
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 17 February 2010:
The Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has asked me to reply to you directly in respect of your question (2009/1312) asking what was the estimated amount and cost of energy used, and what proportion of that energy was generated from renewable sources, for each year since The Insolvency Service was established.
Following guidance issued to Departments about this question, the table below gives information for the last five years. We are unable to provide data before that time.
| Renewable (Kwh) | Electricity (Kwh) | Electricity cost (£) | Gas Kwh | Gas cost (£) | |
| (1 )The figure for renewable energy derives from a photovoltaic roof at our largest building. | |||||
Prior to the current year, The Insolvency Service was tied to contracts that did not include the supply of energy from renewable sources. We have now entered into a contract for our largest office which will include 10 per cent. renewable energy for the first year of the contract, with incremental increases
thereafter. It is our intention to add further offices to this contract when other existing leases come to an end. It should also be noted that the data supplied in the table above applies to those buildings (approximately 25 per cent. of the estate) where we are billed for energy directly. Those offices where utilities are met through the landlord's service charge are not included.
Departmental Pay
Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many (a) year-end and (b) in-year bonuses were paid to officials in his Department and its predecessor in each of the last three years; and how much was paid in such bonuses in each such year. [307098]
Mr. McFadden: An element of the BIS overall pay award for staff below the SCS is allocated to non-consolidated variable pay related to performance. These payments are used to drive high performance and form part of the pay award. There are two types of award: in-year bonuses, which consist of special individual performance awards and non-pay rewards that recognise strong performance in particularly demanding tasks for situations. Staff in receipt of a special bonus may also receive an annual performance award. Annual performance awards are paid to members of staff who receive a highly successful performance rating.
Non-consolidated variable pay awards are funded from within existing pay bill controls, and have to be re-earned each year against pre-determined targets and, as such, do not add to future pay bill costs.
Performance awards for the SCS are part of the pay system across the whole senior civil service, and are used to reward high performance sustained throughout the year, based on judgments of how well an individual has performed relative to their peers. The performance related pay scheme is designed to help drive high performance and support better public service delivery. Performance awards are non-consolidated and non-pensionable. The percentage of the pay bill set aside for performance-related awards for the SCS is based on recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
BIS was formed through a machinery of government change that occurred in June 2009. The Department was created by merging The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). DIUS and BERR were themselves created as part of a machinery of government change in June 2007. This means that BIS in its current format did not exist to award performance awards in any of the previous three years.
The information in the following table has been drawn from various data sources and provides details for both of the former Departments that were merged to create BIS.
| Department | Financial year | Number of staff who received "in year awards" | Total value of "in year rewards" (£) | Number of staff awarded end of year performance awards | Total value of end of year performance awards (£) | Total value of awards (£) |
| (1) DIUS was not created until 2007 Notes: 1. DIUS was created by a MOG change that occurred in June 2007 and did not exist before this date. The majority of annual performance awards paid to staff in 2007-08 were issued by the Departments that staff had transferred from. 2. In all three years the total value of the performance awards paid was approximately 1.5 per cent. of the total Department's pay bill. | ||||||
Departmental Travel
John Penrose: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much each of his Department's (a) non-departmental public bodies and (b) research councils spent on (i) first-class air travel, (ii) first class rail travel, (iii) taxis, (iv) hotel accommodation and (v) other travel and overnight subsistence expenses in each of the last three years. [313293]
Mr. McFadden: The Department does not hold information on its NDPBs' (which includes the Research Councils) travel and subsistence expenses centrally and such information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Exports: Saudi Arabia
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent steps he has taken to recruit staff with direct experience of commercial exports to UK Trade and Investment to work on the promotion of exports to Saudi Arabia. [317992]
Ian Lucas: UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is not an employer in its own right. For the majority of its human resource requirements, it draws on the staff employed by one or other of its two parent departments, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (mainly in the UK) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (mainly overseas).
UKTI staff in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar, together with those promoting business with Saudi
Arabia in London, are BIS or FCO employees. In addition, locally engaged staff are employed by UKTI in Saudi Arabia, many of whom come from a commercial background, to assist UK firms access the opportunities available in the market. UKTI has also appointed two specialists from the private sector to help British companies to win business stemming from the Saudi Arabian Government's fiscal stimulus programme.
London Metropolitan University
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the financial situation of London Metropolitan University; and what his estimate is of likely (a) student and (b) staff numbers in (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11 and (iii) 2011-12. [318018]
Mr. Lammy: Assessments of the financial situation of individual institutions are a matter for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the individual institutions.
Final student and staff numbers for 2009-10 will not be available until these are collected at the end of the academic year by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. HEFCE is discussing with the university, as it does with all institutions, its future plans for student and staff numbers as part of its arrangements for monitoring the financial position of the university.
Maternity Leave
Annette Brooke: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the average length of maternity leave taken by women was in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [317190]
Mr. McFadden: From April 2007 all employed mothers are entitled to 52 weeks maternity leave, of which 39 may be paid. Employers are not required to record or report the uptake of maternity leave to the Government.
The most recent estimates of take-up of maternity leave are based on the DWP 'Maternity Rights and Mothers' employment decisions in Britain: Survey of Mothers' (2007). In 2006, when the mothers included in the study went on maternity leave, the statutory entitlement to ordinary maternity leave (OML) was 26 weeks, while mothers who had worked for their employer for a qualifying period of 26 weeks were also entitled to additional maternity leave (AML) of 26 weeks.
For mothers taking maternity leave in 2006:
84 per cent. took 26 weeks or more maternity leave;
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