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11 Mar 2010 : Column 413W—continued
Business, Innovation and Skills
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Barry Gardiner: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many (a) disciplinary and (b) capability procedures have been (i) initiated and (ii) completed in his Department and its predecessor in each of the last five years; how much time on average was taken to complete each type of procedure in each such year; how many and what proportion of his Department's staff were subject to each type of procedure in each such year; and how many and what proportion of each type of procedure resulted in the dismissal of the member of staff. [320638]
Mr. McFadden: We are unable to provide the information requested on procedures initiated or average length of time that procedures take as responsibility for commencing capability and minor disciplinary procedures rests with line management across the Department. No records are collated centrally regarding how many procedures are initiated in the Department.
Staff may be dismissed for poor performance, poor attendance, gross misconduct or repeated misconduct. Information for the Department, including any predecessor Departments and data for UK Trade and Investment, in relation to dismissals on these grounds are set out in the following table. Totals of five or less are suppressed on the grounds of confidentiality.
| Number of staff dismissed (all reasons) | |
| (1) To date. (2 )Unable to supply this information under section 40 (personal data) of the Data Protection Act. | |
Departmental Paper
Martin Horwood: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what (a) suppliers and (b) brands of (i) paper and (ii) paper products his Department uses; and what his Department's policy is on the procurement of those materials. [320036]
Mr. McFadden: The Department uses the Pan- Government Office Supplies Framework set up by the MOD. Under the framework Office Depot are the paper suppliers. Our reprographics department also use The Paper Company (formally Dixon and Roe) for their supplies.
Our hand towels, toilet rolls and kitchen paper are purchased through our cleaning company-GBM who in turn purchase from either Bunzi Cleaning and Hygiene Supplies or Futures Supplies and Support Services Ltd.
For the paper we use some unbranded products and some branded products as follows:
Reprographics Department uses Evolve Office Paper and Nine Lives Paper.
Office Depot provides Evolve, Unbranded; Filemaster; Paradis; Kendall; Kestrel; Communiques; Conqueror; Copyspeed; Classic and Rellex.
Our cleaning consumables are Kimberley Clark.
Insolvency: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses employing fewer than 50 people went into administration in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point constituency in (i) each of the last 12 months and (ii) each of the last five years. [321446]
Ian Lucas: Official statistics for corporate insolvencies, including administrations, are not currently available at a sub-national level within England and Wales.
Additionally, the number of employees of a company in administration is not recorded on the Companies House source data.
Met Office
John Thurso: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to page 27 of the document Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government, what underlying data for weather forecasts will be released for free download and reuse by April 2010. [321358]
Mr. Kevan Jones: I have been asked to reply.
The underlying data that have been made available are detailed in the following table. These data can be downloaded for free from the Met Office website at the following link:
As outlined in 'Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government', the Met Office has also released a free iPhone application to access weather data and a widget that enables other websites to deploy Met Office supplied weather information.
Post Offices: Bank Services
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many sub-postmasters have had back-payments collected from them by Post Office Ltd. in relation to ATMs installed in their branches; and from how many Post Office Ltd. continues seek to collect such back-payments; [321089]
(2) what recent discussions he has had with Post Office Ltd. on the collection of back-payments from sub-postmasters for ATMs in their branches; and if he will make a statement. [321090]
Mr. McFadden: Following agreement with the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, Post Office Ltd. notified sub-postmasters in September 2009 that they would not be asked to pay any backdated fees from the time their ATM was installed up to the end of August 2009.
Royal Mail
Peter Luff: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when he expects to announce the appointment of a new chief executive for Royal Mail Group; and if he will make a statement. [320978]
Mr. McFadden: The chief executive post is not a Government appointment. The Royal Mail Board has begun the search for Adam Crozier's replacement but there is no set timetable for the recruitment process. An announcement will be made when the process is concluded.
Women and Equality
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Barry Gardiner: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many (a) disciplinary and (b) capability procedures have been (i) initiated and (ii) completed in the Government Equalities Office in each of the last five years; how much time on average was taken to complete each type of procedure in each such year; how many and what proportion of staff of the Government Equalities Office were subject to each type of procedure in each such year; and how many and what proportion of each type of procedure resulted in the dismissal of the member of staff. [320640]
Michael Jabez Foster: Since its creation in 2007, the Government Equalities Office has had one disciplinary case, in 2009. The case involved one member of staff and did not result in dismissal. It was initiated and completed within the 2009 calendar year.
Cabinet Office
Departmental ICT
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what information technology projects initiated by (a) her Department and (b) its agency were cancelled prior to completion in the last 12 months; and what the cost of each such project was to the public purse. [320437]
Angela E. Smith: My Department has not cancelled any information technology projects in the last 12 months.
Employment
Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people have moved from being (a) unemployed and (b) economically inactive to employed in each quarter in each (i) region and (ii) country of the UK since 2007; and what proportion of the labour force this represented in each (A) quarter and (B) such area. [321064]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated March 2010:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people have moved from being (a) unemployed and (b) economically inactive to employed in each quarter in each (i) region and (ii) country of the UK since 2007; and what proportion of the labour force this represented in each (A) quarter and (B) such area. (321064)
Estimates for the working age population of the UK are provided in the attached table. They are derived from datasets extracted from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which enable the estimation of the labour market status of people surveyed in two successive quarters. These datasets are made publicly available as the "LFS Longitudinal Datasets". Estimates for the regions and countries within the UK, and for all people aged 16 and over, are not available due to sample size restrictions and the limitations of the estimation methodology.
As with any estimates extracted from sample surveys, the figures provided are subject to a margin of uncertainty. More precise estimates of the quality of the estimates provided in this answer are not available.
| Estimated quarterly flows( 1) from unemployment and from economic inactivity into employment, working age people( 2) , United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted | |||||
| Flows (Thousand) | Flows as a percentage of total economically active | ||||
| Unemployment to employment | Economic inactivity to employment | Unemployment to employment | Economic inactivity to employment | ||
| (1) From the previous calendar quarter to the quarter shown. (2) Men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey Longitudinal Datasets | |||||
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