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The Office for National Statistics collects the annual salaries of civil servants, as part of the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES).

At 31 March 2008, there were 700 permanent civil servants earning in excess of £100,000 and 10 permanent civil servants earning in excess of £200,000 (Annex A).

Annex A
Civil servant salaries in excess of (a) £100,000 and (b) £200,000 per annum
Permanent employees
Headcount

Greater than £100,000

Greater than £200,000

Number of civil servants1

700

10

Criminal Records Bureau

Question

Asked by The Earl of Listowel

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): We understand that there is some cost and effort involved in obtaining new CRB disclosures for each new member of staff. However, there are risks associated with porting disclosures. For example, there may have been a new offence committed since the

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previous disclosure; the disclosure may have been tampered with; or the person's identity may have been checked incorrectly. It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that their staff are suitable to work with children. Therefore, the employer should satisfy themselves that checks have been completed correctly and that the employer has the full information to make a decision.

The introduction of the vetting and barring scheme from October 2009 will improve safeguarding arrangements. However, we have proposed to continue the requirement for CRB checks as it is important those who employ people who work in the looked-after children's sector have access to the more finely grained criminal history in order to decide on suitability. We will review current statutory requirements for CRB disclosures once the vetting and barring scheme has been fully implemented across the workforce.

Crown Prosecution Service

Question

Asked by Lord Tebbit

The Attorney-General (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The Crown Prosecution Service aims to appoint all staff based on merit drawing from the widest talent pools, and in doing so to reflect the community it serves.

Debt: Public Projects

Question

Asked by Lord Inglewood

The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): The full list of all signed private finance initiative (PFI) projects can be found on HM Treasury's website at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ppp_pfi_stats.htm. For each PFI project, this list details the project name, the capital value, the constituency, the procuring authority and the annual unitary charge that needs to be paid over the life of the contract.

HM Treasury uses departmental returns as the basis for its statistics on PFI projects published at each Pre-Budget and Budget Report. These are in turn based on HM Treasury's Green Book, which can be found on the Treasury's website at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/data_greenbook_index.htm and which sets out guidance for the calculation of net present value. HM Treasury does not hold records for all public projects paid for by other public-private partnership mechanisms and their predecessors; these are the responsibility of the relevant procuring authority.



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Emissions Trading Scheme

Question

Asked by Lord Dykes

The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The Government have always stated a preference for a global emissions trading scheme and we are actively pursuing this option in the International Maritime Organisation. We welcome the support from the chamber to achieve this outcome and its framework proposal is a very useful contribution. However, if a consensus cannot be reached on a global approach, we will support a EU maritime emissions trading scheme as a building block towards a global deal and we would welcome the support of the chamber on an EU approach.

Energy: Oil

Question

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Yes. In July 2008 the Environment Agency issued for a 12-week consultation a draft end-of-waste protocol on the production and use of processed fuel oil from waste lubricating oil. The agency is considering the responses to that consultation and hopes shortly to issue a post-consultation draft of the protocol. This version of the protocol will be notified to the European Commission in compliance with the technical standards directive and, subject to the successful conclusion of that process, the protocol will be published by the agency in its final form later in 2009.

Equality: Age

Question

Asked by Lord Ouseley

Lord Patel of Bradford: The Civil Service is committed to recruiting and developing people of all ages, an approach that is consistent with the Employment Equality

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(Age) Regulations 2006. Data on age and other employee characteristics are collected and published through the Office for National Statistics's Annual Civil Service Employment Survey. The survey results include tables that show the age profile across the Civil Service and a breakdown by department; the results of the most recent survey for 2008 can be found on their website at www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk= 2899&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=422.

Government: Minutes of Meetings

Questions

Asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer

Lord Patel of Bradford: All such meetings are conducted in accordance with the Ministerial Code and Civil Service Code.

Guidance on record keeping is set out in the Records Management Code and Managing Private Office Records, which can be accessed online at www.national archives.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/code/default. htm and www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/popaper sguidance-full.pdf.

Copies are also available in the Library of the House.

Guantanamo Bay: Binyam Mohamed

Questions

Asked by Lord Hylton

The Attorney-General (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The Home Secretary referred the question of possible wrongdoing by intelligence and security personnel in the Binyam Mohamed case to me on 23 October 2008. I was provided with the open and closed judgments of the Divisional Court in the case; transcripts of all the evidence given by witness B; the other evidence and

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submissions made to the court; and the Foreign Secretary's PII (public interest immunity) certificates, together with their sensitive schedules and associated documents.

I have also received material from third parties about the case.

After undertaking a preliminary review of this material I took the view that I should seek advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions. All the material provided to me has been made available to the DPP.

At this stage no decision has been reached and it would be premature to speculate as to the outcome of this consideration.

In performing this function as Attorney-General, I act wholly independently of government and in the public interest. Similarly the DPP acts as an independent prosecuting authority, subject to my statutory superintendence.

You will understand it is not possible to give a precise timescale. There is a substantial quantity of material to consider. Some of it is very highly classified and must be handled under the most secure conditions. It is being considered by specialist prosecutors within the CPS who are progressing this important work as quickly as possible.

I would intend to report to Parliament on my assessment. But you will understand that what can be said publicly at any given stage may depend on a variety of factors, including whether any police investigation is to follow (and the need to avoid prejudicing any such investigation and potential prosecution), and the need to protect national security.

Asked by Lord Campbell-Savours

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Home Secretary referred the question of possible wrongdoing by intelligence and security personnel in the Binyam Mohamed case to me on 23 October 2008. I was provided with the open and closed judgments of the Divisional Court in the case; transcripts of all the evidence given by witness B; the other evidence and submissions made to the court; and the Foreign Secretary's PII (public interest immunity) certificates, together with their sensitive schedules and associated documents.

I have also received material from third parties about the case.

After undertaking a preliminary review of this material I took the view that I should seek advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions. All the material provided to me has been made available to the DPP.

At this stage no decision has been reached and it would be premature to speculate as to the outcome of this consideration.

In performing this function as Attorney-General, I act wholly independently of government and in the public interest. Similarly the DPP acts as an independent prosecuting authority, subject to my statutory superintendence.



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You ask when I will report a decision on when further action will be taken. You will understand it is not possible to give a precise timescale. There is a substantial quantity of material to consider. Some of it is very highly classified and must be handled under the most secure conditions. It is being considered by specialist prosecutors within the CPS who are progressing this important work as quickly as possible.

I would intend to report to Parliament on my assessment. But you will understand that what can be said publicly at any given stage may depend on a variety of factors, including whether any police investigation is to follow (and the need to avoid prejudicing any such investigation and potential prosecution), and the need to protect national security.

Health: Drugs

Question

Asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The National Patient Safety Agency has advised that 19 patient safety incidents relating to prescribing and dispensing of immunosuppressant therapies Prograf and Advagraf were submitted to its reporting and learning system between 1 January 2005 and 30 November 2008.

These include nine prescribing incidents. Five of these related to omitted or delayed doses of Prograf or Advagraf in hospital settings, one to a poorly hand written prescription, two where the wrong formulation of tacrolimus (the active ingredient in these therapies) had been prescribed and one to a possible interaction between an oral antibiotic and Prograf.

The remaining 10 were dispensing incidents. In four of these, the wrong formulation of tacrolimus had been dispensed. Two incidents related to omitted or delayed doses of Prograf or Advagraf in hospital settings, two where there was an unclear or wrong dose, one incident involving expired stock and one incident where the wrong quantity of capsules had been dispensed.

All 19 incidents resulted in low or no harm.

Housing: Oil

Question

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach



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The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The most recently published fuel poverty figures show that in 2006 around 2.7 million households in England were not connected to the mains gas network, with around 20 per cent of them estimated to be in fuel poverty. Around 900,000 households rely on heating oil as their main fuel for central heating and just under a quarter of these were fuel poor in 2006.

Warm Front is the Government's flagship scheme for tackling fuel poverty in the private sector in England for vulnerable householders. The scheme currently provides grants for specified insulation and heating measures up to the value of £2,700. or £4,000 for oil central heating (including properties with no access to the gas network).

The Government recognise the specific challenge of assisting properties in rural communities. The Warm Front Scheme Management Board considers on a regular basis whether to approve appropriate alternative technologies on to the scheme, where they might prove cost-effective. One example is through Warm Front and National Energy Action where we are currently carrying out a pilot using solar thermal technology together with electric heating.

In addition, Warm Front has a networking team which operates in rural areas to help bring assistance to vulnerable households in rural communities. Proactively engaging with local organisations and area-based schemes, the team helps to increase the take-up of grants and energy efficiency advice in rural areas.

The carbon emissions reduction target (CERT) is the Government's principal policy for driving up household energy efficiency by 2011. Under CERT the major energy suppliers have an obligation to direct at least 40 per cent of carbon savings at priority group households. This includes important measures for hard-to-treat homes such as solid wall insulation and central heating. Suppliers installed around 80,000 heating measures through fuel switching in the previous three-year obligation period to March 2008 (the second energy efficiency commitment, EEC2). The Government recognise there is a high up-front cost for these measures and therefore under CERT we have introduced specific incentives to help improve the financial viability of fuel switching, with a particular focus on homes which are off the gas grid.

The principal barrier to providing new gas connections to communities and households beyond the mains gas network is the cost to the customer. Ofgem recognises the benefits that access to gas offers low-income households, and has incentivised the large gas networks to connect deprived communities under the 2008-13 gas distribution price control. This packages a range of existing funding sources and uses independent gas transporters with an aim of ensuring the maximum number of vulnerable and fuel poor households should be connected to the gas network at least cost. Those households who will be assisted under the scheme qualify because they either reside within the 20 per cent most deprived areas according to the index of multiple deprivation, qualify for assistance under Warm Front (or similar schemes in the devolved nations) or fall within the priority group under CERT.

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