Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on iPhones in each year since 2010.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID has not purchased any iPhones for use by staff since 2010.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many Instant Rewards of what value were given to her Department's officials in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID does not offer Instant Rewards as part of its Pay and Reward Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has spent on legal fees over prevention of release of information requested by Freedom of Information requests since 2010.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID’s financial data cannot be disaggregated in the way that has been requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, on how many occasions her Department has had requests for appointments by exception to the Senior Civil Service turned down by the Civil Service Commission since 2010; and who was appointed for each such post.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The Civil Service Commission publish details of appointments made by exception and approved by them in their annual reports and on their website. These reports are available in the Library of the House. It would not be appropriate to publish DFID details of the requests turned down by the Commission as the numbers involved are so small.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many Freedom of Information requests her Department has declined to answer in full since 2010.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes a quarterly statistics bulletin concerning Freedom of Information (FOI) responses from all government departments including DFID. The bulletin includes tables showing how many requests were granted in full, or resulted in some information being withheld or all information withheld. The MoJ statistics bulletin can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics .
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, on how many occasions her Department has made appointments by exception since 2010; and who was appointed for each such post.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The number of exceptions granted by the Civil Service Commission for DFID since 2010 is:
2009/10 | 17 |
2010/11 | 7 |
2011/12 | 2 |
2012/13 | 105 |
2013/14 | 70 |
Releasing details of appointees could lead to the individual being identified and would therefore breach the legitimate expectation of an individual’s right to protection of their personal information.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, on what occasions each Minister within her Department has taken domestic flights on official business since May 2010.
Answered by Alan Duncan
This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Details of all Ministerial overseas travel are published on a quarterly basis. Any such flight would normally be to Glasgow where DFID has an office in East Kilbride.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department spent on legal fees in cases relating to the release of information requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
It is not possible to disaggregate this data into the form requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what professional development courses are made available to staff of her Department; and what the cost to the public purse is of each such course.
Answered by Alan Duncan
DFID has decentralised responsibility for training and professional development to line managers and Heads of Profession. The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many senior civil servants appointed to positions in her Department since 2010 were previously (a) political appointees within that Department and (b) employed by a political party.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We have no central report readily available detailing the senior civil servants who have been appointed since 2010 and who were previously (a) political appointees within DFID and (b) employed by a political party. This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost