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18 Mar 2010 : Column 992W—continued
Departmental Legal Costs
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department and its predecessors have spent in (a) legal fees and (b) compensation on legal cases concerning remuneration of its employees in each of the last 10 years. [322064]
Chris Mole: The Department for Transport was formed in May 2002. Information on the costs and compensation in specific types of legal cases is not held centrally either by the Department or its agencies and could not be collated without incurring disproportionate cost.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Syms: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the answer to my hon Friend the Member for Ruislip Northwood of (Mr. Hurd) 5 January 2010, Official Report, column 103W, on departmental marketing, how much his Department and agencies have spent on advertising, marketing, public relations and publicity in relation to (a) Real Help Now and (b) Building Britain's Future themed campaigns to date. [320452]
Chris Mole: The Department for Transport and its Executive agencies have not incurred any expenditure in relation to "Real Help Now" and "Building Britain's Future" themed campaigns to date.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much was paid in reimbursable expenses to special advisers in his Department in each of the last five years. [320483]
Chris Mole: As temporary civil servants, special advisers undertake their duties in line with the requirements of the civil service code, civil service management code, and the code of conduct for special advisers, which includes rules on the reimbursement of expenses incurred when carrying out departmental business.
The reimbursable expenses paid to special advisers in the Department for Transport over the past five years is as follows:
| Financial year | Total expenses reimbursed (£) |
| (1) Data correct for the financial year up to and including 15 March 2010. | |
Departmental Surveys
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport if he will place in the Library a copy of the benchmark results of the Civil Service People Survey for his Department and its agencies. [322577]
Chris Mole: The 2009 People Survey results for the Department for Transport are now available in the Libraries of the House. These results are also available on the Department of Transport website:
High Speed Two: Freedom of Information
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport if he will direct High Speed Two Ltd. to respond to requests for information from members of the public as if it were a public authority specified under the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and if he will make a statement. [322930]
Chris Mole: High Speed Two Ltd. is a "public authority" as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and therefore responds to requests for information by members of the public.
Northern Rail: Rolling Stock
Jim Dobbin: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what timetable he has set for announcing his plans for the provision of extra carriages for Northern Rail, as referred to in the 2007 Rail White Paper. [322364]
Chris Mole: Discussions are taking place with Northern Rail to provide additional vehicles. The Department for Transport has already agreed some initial stages with Northern Rail, whereby 10 diesel vehicles formerly deployed on the Oldham Loop will be retained in the Northern Rail franchise, and Northern Rail will procure a further eight net additional vehicles. These 18 vehicles will be used to lengthen certain train services, principally in Greater Manchester. Further work will continue and further announcements will be made in due course.
Parking
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what discretion local authorities have to override the findings of independent parking adjudicators. [322901]
Mr. Khan: A local authority that has been given the power to enforce parking under the Traffic Management Act 2004 must have regard to the Secretary of State's Statutory Guidance to Local Authorities on the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (February 2008). Paragraph 102 of that guidance says:
"If an adjudicator allows the appeal s/he may direct the authority to cancel the Notice to Owner and refund any sum already paid in respect of the penalty charge. The authority must comply with this direction without delay."
Railways: Accidents
John Robertson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what steps he is taking to reduce the number of fatal and serious injuries to workers on the highway network; and if he will make a statement. [322760]
Chris Mole: The Highways Agency published a Road Worker Safety Strategy last year which includes action plan measures to improve the safety for road workers on the Strategic Road Network. The Government are now consulting on proposals to revise the Safety Code of Practice which applies on other roads. The Highways Agency also leads a cross-industry group investigating improvements for road worker safety on high speed roads.
Railways: Construction
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent representations he has received from city councils on the effect on regional economies of a high-speed rail network. [322752]
Mr. Khan: Over the past year, the Department for Transport has received representations regarding the regional economic effects of high speed rail in the UK from city councils, including Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and the Association of North East Councils.
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether he has had discussions with the Department for Communities and Local Government on the likely effects of his preferred route for High Speed Two on the Government's plans for housing and employment in Aylesbury; and if he will make a statement. [322931]
Chris Mole: My right hon. and noble Friend, the Secretary of State for Transport and my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Housing, have discussed a range of issues relating to high speed rail.
Railways: Todmorden
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what estimate his Department has made of the cost of re-instating the Todmorden Curve. [322756]
Chris Mole: According to a Network Rail study carried out on behalf of the promoters, the cost of re-instating the Todmorden Curve is likely to be in the region of £7 million. This is subject to further studies to establish the ground conditions on the line of the preferred route for the curve.
Women and Equality
Rape Cases Stern Review
Julie Morgan: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps she plans to take in response to the Stern Review on the handling of rape cases. [322780]
The Solicitor-General: The Government welcome Baroness Stern's report of her review which recognises the significant improvements made since 1997, but also identifies where more remains to be done to build on this progress.
The Department has published an interim government response and will carefully consider the 23 recommendations in the report before publishing a fuller response later this year.
Rapists must know that they will not get away with it, whatever the circumstances. They stand a more than one in two chance of conviction.
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent representations she has received on the recommendations in the Fifteenth Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, on the Equality and Human Rights Commission, HC 124. [322784]
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent representations she has received on the recommendations in the Fifteenth Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, on the Equality and Human Rights Commission, HC 124. [322785]
Ms Harman: I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave earlier today.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many designs for its (a) internal website and (b) intranet the Government Equalities Office has commissioned since 2005; and what the cost was of each such design. [321990]
Maria Eagle: The GEO does not have an internal website or intranet.
Equality and Human Rights Commission: Manpower
Mr. Harper: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality with reference to paragraph 20 on page 15 of the Public Accounts Committee report on the Equality and Human Rights Commission, HC 124, what conclusions the Commission's Accounting Officer has reached in investigating the reasons behind the continued payment of a former staff member three months after the individual had stopped working for the Commission; and what steps are being taken to recover the payment. [321390]
Maria Eagle: The EHRC is independent and manages its own affairs. The EHRC's Accounting officer has instigated an inquiry into the payment. He will report his findings to the Committee of Public Accounts.
Greater Manchester
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality if she will set out, with statistical information related as directly as possible to Manchester, Gorton constituency, the effects on that constituency of the policies of the Government Equalities Office since its inception. [322135]
Maria Eagle: The Government Equalities Office operates at a strategic level across Government to promote policies which address discrimination. It is not possible to provide statistical information about the effects on Manchester of the policies and actions of GEO since it was established.
Lord Sugar of Clapton
Mrs. May: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what discussions she has had with Lord Sugar of Clapton on the subject of women in the workplace since his appointment. [310346]
Maria Eagle: I have had no discussions with Lord Sugar on women in the workplace since his appointment as the Government's enterprise champion. However, I have recently met with both the Women's Enterprise Task Force and Lord Davies, the Minister for Trade and Investment to discuss how Government can continue to support female entrepreneurs.
The Government responded to the final report of the Women's Enterprise Task Force in November 2009, and will shortly launch a new strategic framework and action plan aimed at realising our vision of fair and family-friendly labour market where everyone has the opportunity to develop their skills and experience.
Politics: Females
Mr. Bone: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent assessment she has made of the barriers to women's participation in politics. [322782]
Maria Eagle: This Government are committed to improving women's participation in politics. The Speaker's Conference, which reported in January, identified a number of barriers to women's participation in politics which include cost, culture of political parties, time pressures, lack of support, as well as discrimination.
The Government formally responded to the Speaker's Conference on 10 March, welcoming their report.
We have already responded to one of the report's recommendations by amending the Equality Bill to introduce a power that will require political parties to report on the diversity of their candidate selections. The scope and nature of the reporting requirement will be determined after consultation with political parties and others.
International Development
Chile: Earthquakes
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what support his Department has given to survivors of the recent earthquake in Chile. [322624]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has contributed £250,000 to the Chilean Red Cross for the provision of front line relief work. 600 tents were delivered by Royal Air Force flight to the relief agency World Vision for distribution to families made homeless by the earthquake.
Departmental Internet
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) how many people his Department employs to maintain its social media and networking sites; and at what cost; [322552]
(2) how much his Department spent on maintaining its Twitter feed in the latest period for which figures are available; [322556]
(3) how much his Department spent on maintaining its YouTube channel in the latest period for which figures are available; [322558]
(4) how much his Department spent on maintaining its Flickr channel in the latest period for which figures are available. [322595]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has an editorial team of six who maintain the main departmental website. As part of their duties, they all have access to the social media and networking site accounts that have been set up for DFID, including Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, and take part in maintaining them. We do not record work in a way that would make it possible to disaggregate the time spent by individuals on each activity, and therefore are unable to assign specific costs.
Departmental Press Releases
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many press releases his Department has issued in the last 12 months. [322557]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) records the number of press releases by calendar year. DFID issued 139 press releases in 2009.
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