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6 Apr 2010 : Column 1256W—continued
—continuedCrime
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) drug dealers, (b) people dealing in counterfeit currency and (c) people dealing in counterfeit goods in England and Wales in each of the last five years. [317772]
Alan Johnson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given in respect of a previous question on 4 June 2008, Official Report, column 997W.
Crime Prevention
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department has undertaken into the relationship between levels of spending on police and crime rates; and if he will make a statement. [324137]
Mr. Hanson: The Home Office has supported a number of research projects concerning the impact of police resourcing and deployment on crime rates. These have included the impact of police force funding, undertaken in collaboration with Professor Ben Vollaard of the university of Tilburg (Tilburg Law and Economics Centre Discussion Paper DP 2009-012), the impact of the Street Crime Initiative, undertaken by Professor Steve Machin (and Olivier Marie) of the London School of Economics (LSE Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No. 680), and the effect of police redeployment following the 7/7 terror attacks, also by Professor Machin (and colleagues) (LSE Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No. 852). These research projects have found that increases in police resources, both generally and targeted, have been associated with reductions in crime rates, in line with the recent international academic literature on the topic.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department and its agencies have spent on rooms for staff leisure in each of the last five years. [324441]
Mr. Woolas: In common with many organisations my Department provides various facilities to support staff fitness. Information on the cost of these facilities is not held separately.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department provides subsidised gym facilities for its staff. [324559]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Department provides accommodation for gym facilities at 2 Marsham street, but does not provide a cash subsidy for staff.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on interior design in relation to office refurbishments undertaken in each of the last five years. [324679]
Mr. Woolas: My Department's accounts do not itemise this level of information.
Departmental Contracts
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will issue guidance on his Department's policy on the relocation offshore of departmental jobs to companies bidding for contracts let by his Department. [324791]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Department has no policy on the relocation offshore of departmental jobs and has no plans to issue any guidance to companies bidding for contracts let by the Department.
Departmental Data Protection
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many attempts were made to gain unauthorised access to each (a) database and (b) ICT system run by his Department in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [317830]
Alan Johnson: The Department does not comment on issues relating to possible breaches of the UK's national security.
Departmental Information Officers
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost to his Department was of employing press and media officers in the last 12 month period for which figures are available; and what the cost to his Department was of employing such staff in the financial year 1996-97, expressed in real terms. [324805]
Mr. Woolas: The cost of press officers employed between March 2009 and February 2010 was £1,795,888.92. The Home Office do not employ media officers and do not hold records of press or media officers employed in the financial year 1996-97; our records do not go back that far.
Departmental Internet
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department and its agencies incurred expenditure on advertising via Google Adwords in the latest year for which figures are available. [324624]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office and its agencies have spent a total of £401,724 on advertising via Google Adwords in 2009-10.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints his Department received regarding difficulties using its website in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [325195]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office has received 1,053 pieces of feedback from site users since 2008. This comprises a range of comment such as requests for further information, queries about content, reports of broken links and suggestions for new content. We do not have the information to be able to breakdown this feedback to identify specific complaints regarding difficulties in using the website.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on external website design consultants in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [325213]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office website,
last underwent a major redesign in 2005. It subsequently underwent a minor redesign in 2008 to incorporate new corporate branding following the machinery of government change to create Ministry of Justice.
Costs spent on design consultants for the external website in the last three years were:
| Spent (£) | |
Departmental Legal Costs
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department has spent in (a) legal fees and (b) compensation on legal cases concerning remuneration of its employees in each of the last 10 years. [322062]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office (excluding its agencies) does not maintain a central record of how much has been spent on legal fees or compensation specifically relating to legal cases concerning remuneration of its employees. Therefore the information requested could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many performance reviews were undertaken in respect of staff of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; in how many cases performance was rated as unsatisfactory or below; how many staff left as a direct result of such a rating; and what percentage of full-time equivalent staff this represented. [313829]
Mr. Woolas: All permanent staff of the Home Office should receive a performance review each year. In 2008-09 just over 24,000 staff received a review. Staff are assessed against their objectives and, where improvement in performance is needed, that will be reflected in their development plan. In 2008-09 and 2007-08 just over 150 staff were marked as unsatisfactory overall. But in addition many staff receiving satisfactory markings would also have specific areas for improvement.
No accurate figures are available for earlier years. And it is not possible to relate the numbers leaving in any year directly to the numbers marked as unsatisfactory.
| Total number of unsatisfactory performance assessment markings | |||
| HO HQ and UKBA | IPS | CRB | |
| (1) No information available. | |||
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department and its agencies spent on promotional items carrying the Department's branding and logo in the last five years; and what those items were. [324715]
Mr. Woolas: The amount spent on promotional items carrying the Departments and its agencies branding and logo in the last five years is as follows:
Home Office and UK Border Agency
The requested information is not held centrally and cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.
Figures for the Identity and Passport Agency and Criminal Records Bureau are shown in the following tables.
| Identity and Passport Agency | ||
| Amount (£) | ||
|
Promotional stationary for the UK Passport Service for Five Nations Passport Issuers Conference | ||
| Criminal Records Bureau | ||
| Amount (£) | ||
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the five most expensive hospitality events hosted by his Department and its agencies were in the last three years; and what (a) the cost and (b) purpose of each such event was. [324658]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office systems (and those of its agencies) do not separately identify the cost of individual hospitality events from overall hospitality costs. This information could be provided at only disproportionate cost.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 12 October 2009, Official Report, column 521W, what the name is of each underspent project; and what the monetary value was of the underspend in each subsequently transferred to support the Draft Legislative Programme for 2009-10. [324529]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office transferred £40 million resource and £5 million capital in the winter supplementary estimate 2009-10 for Building Britain's Future. The transfer was made from emerging underspends in the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism.
Departmental Theft
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Department is taking to deter theft from within the Department. [322650]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office has effective security arrangements in place to guard against theft. A range of measures to deter, prevent and detect theft are an integral feature of the Department's broader security risk mitigation measures. These controls reflect the minimum standards set out in the HMG Security Policy Framework (SPF), issued by the Cabinet Office and available online at:
It would not be appropriate to provide details of specific measures as to do so would undermine their effectiveness.
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