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  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Sums paid to Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) staff for overtime for the last 24 months, for which figures are available, were as follows:

    £000s

    January

    February

    March

    April

    May

    June

    July

    August

    September

    October

    November

    December

    2014

    –

    5.1

    10.9

    2.6

    6.8

    4.3

    7.3

    23.7

    7.0

    7.1

    3.7

    10.8

    2015

    2.2

    3.9

    28.0

    6.2

    31.0

    5.8

    4.3

    8.3

    6.6

    4.3

    8.6

    7.1

    2016

    6.3

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    DCMS is the smallest government department, with 509 full time equivalent (FTE) permanent employees (as of 31 January 2016). Overtime is a cost-effective way of managing peaks in workload in order to reduce the need for contractors or adding to the department’s headcount. Annual expenditure on overtime accounts for just under 0.3% of the DCMS paybill.

    DCMS has responsibility for high profile policy, which includes staging national First World War commemoration events – this is reflected in our overtime figures for August 2014 and May 2015.

    Recent machinery of government changes has also seen DCMS take on additional policy areas, including the digital economy unit, digital inclusion, data protection, the sponsorship of the National Archives and the Information Commissioner. The figure for March 2015 reflects the addition of the 2014-15 total overtime cost for the Digital Economy Unit following its Machinery of Government transfer to DCMS; monthly analysis of this sum is not available.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many civil law suits have been brought against his Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    We do not have any information on civil law suits have been brought against the Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The cost of Employment Tribunals can be found within the HMCTS annual accounts published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433948/hmcts-annual-report-accounts-2014-15.pd

    “

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    DCMS shares premises with other Government Departments – HMRC and DfE – that are responsible for the employment and payment of cleaning staff.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many consultants’ contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    DCMS has not terminated early any fixed fee consultancy contracts, where a cost might have been incurred, in the said time frame.

  • Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on how many occasions he or officials of his Department have met representatives of high street bookmakers to discuss gambling since May 2015.

    David Evennett

    Details of my and the Minister for Sport and Tourism’s meetings with representatives of the bookmaking industry are available via the Department’s transparency returns, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/search?q=quarterly+ministerial+returns&filter_organisations%5B%5D=department-for-culture-media-sport

    In addition, my officials have met representatives of bookmakers on numerous occasions to discuss issues related to gambling.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Written Statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence of 9 December 2015, HCWS372, on War Pension Scheme – Uprating 2016, if he will make an estimate of the cost of uprating war pensions in line with average earnings in 2016.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Department uprates War Pensions annually in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), ensuring a consistent approach to social security disability benefits administered by the Department for Work and Pensions. This is in keeping with other public service schemes and reflects the measure of inflation used by the Bank of England. Therefore the Ministry of Defence has no plans to estimate the cost of uprating compensation payments made under the War Pension Scheme in line with average earnings.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 4.47 of the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, which of the two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers will be enhanced to support amphibious capability.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The two new Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carriers, currently under construction in Rosyth have a planned service life of 50 years each. They will be capable of a spectrum of roles including battlefield helicopter support to littoral operations. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 made provision to enhance this capability in the QEC aircraft carriers.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24278, how much has been set aside within his Department’s budget to cover potential costs associated with the decommissioning and disposal of HMS Ocean.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Much of the work to decommission Royal Navy ships is undertaken using contracts that provide support services for all ships conducting Fleet activities at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth. Costs are not attributed to individual vessels.

    Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) will be responsible for the removal of classified equipment and known hazardous materials from HMS OCEAN after the ship has been decommissioned. The DE&S financial plan will include a provision for this work but a figure has yet to be approved.

    The Disposal Services Authority (DSA), part of DE&S, disposes of defence equipment that is surplus to requirement. DSA costs are not attributed to individual platforms and information is not held in the format requested.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 3.58 of the 44th Report of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body, published in March 2015, when the review of military commitment bonuses was completed; and if he will publish that review.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Following our initial evidence to the Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) in 2014 we undertook to conduct a more fundamental review of commitment bonuses during 2015, once New Employment Model proposals had matured. Our intention was to submit further evidence to the AFPRB. However, as announced on 23 November 2015, and detailed in the Government’s National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, a decision was taken as part of this wider review to phase out commitment bonuses. This decision reflected the view that there was insufficient evidence to prove a tangible retention benefit from these payments. All such payments will now cease from 1 April 2021, providing affected personnel time to adjust their financial plans to take account of any payments for which they are no longer eligible.