Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Instant Rewards of what value were given to his Department's officials in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) rewards individuals for exceptional contributions which further the aims and objectives of the department or meet an exceptional shorter-term operational challenge. The MoJ currently offers two types of reward and recognition: cash awards and voucher awards. Cash awards are payments of non-consolidated performance pay for amounts of up to £100 for a once-off contribution or payments of £100 - £500 for sustained outstanding contribution. Voucher awards are vouchers up to the value of £50 to recognise outstanding once-off contributions, or contributions which a benchmarking panel considers deserve recognition but do not warrant a higher payment. For the financial year April 2013 to March 2014 4,555 cash awards were made, the total value of which was £968,751. 21,898 vouchers were awarded, the total value of which was £639,260. Information on reward and recognition is collated on an annual basis so the data for March 2014 to date is not currently available. Like other organisations, we use a full range of pay and reward mechanisms which will reward exceptional performance from our staff both in year and for a sustained level of performance over the year. Both ensure responsible use of public money. Since 2010 we have reduced our spend on instant rewards by almost 30%, with significant saving for the taxpayer.Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on what occasions each Minister within his Department has taken domestic flights on official business since May 2010.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The table below details domestic flights taken on official business booked through the Department’s business travel contracts for each Minister within the Department since May 2010. The Crown Dependencies (Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey and the Isle of Man) although not part of the United Kingdom, fall with the Common Travel Area and as such are treated as domestic flights.
Name | Itinerary | Date of Travel |
Chris Grayling | London Gatwick - Aberdeen | 10/09/2012 |
Chris Grayling | Aberdeen - London Heathrow | 10/09/2012 |
Chris Grayling | London Gatwick - Belfast City | 06/02/2013 |
Chris Grayling | Belfast City - London Gatwick | 06/02/2013 |
Chris Grayling | London Gatwick - Guernsey | 23/09/2013 |
Chris Grayling | Guernsey - Jersey | 23/09/2013 |
Chris Grayling | Jersey - London Gatwick | 24/09/2013 |
Chris Grayling | London Gatwick - Isle Of Man | 07/07/2014 |
Chris Grayling | Isle Of Man - Manchester | 08/07/2014 |
Chris Grayling | London Gatwick - Belfast Intl | 05/09/2014 |
Chris Grayling | Belfast City - London Gatwick | 05/09/2014 |
Shailesh Vara | London Gatwick - Belfast City, Belfast City - London Gatwick | 20/05/2014 |
Lord Edward Faulks | London City - Isle Of Man, Isle Of Man - London City | 04/04/2014 |
Lord Edward Faulks | London Gatwick - Guernsey | 19/06/2014 |
Lord Edward Faulks | Guernsey - London Gatwick | 21/06/2014 |
Lord Edward Faulks | London Gatwick - Jersey, | 04/08/2014 |
Lord Edward Faulks | Jersey - London Gatwick | 05/08/2014 |
Jeremy Wright | Exeter - Manchester, Manchester - Exeter | 02/10/2013 |
Lord Tom McNally | London Gatwick - Guersney, Guersney - London Gatwick | 08/06/2012 |
Lord Tom McNally | London Gatwick - Jersey, Jersey - London Gatwick | 26/07/2012 |
Lord Tom McNally | London Gatwick - Isle Of Man | 15/11/2012 |
Lord Tom McNally | Isle Of Man - Blackpool | 16/11/2012 |
Lord Tom McNally | London Gatwick - Guernsey, Guernsey - London Gatwick | 16/04/2013 |
Lord Tom McNally | London Gatwick - Jersey, Jersey - London Gatwick | 14/11/2013 |
Simon Hughes | London City - Glasgow | 11/08/2014 |
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many senior civil servants appointed to positions in his Department since 2010 were previously (a) political appointees within that Department and (b) employed by a political party.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
We are unable to provide the number of civil servants appointed to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) who were previously (a) political appointees and (b) employed by a political party. As this information is not held centrally, to collate this information as a whole would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what professional development courses are made available to staff of his Department; and what the cost to the public purse is of each such course.
Answered by Damian Green
Professional development, in the form of formal learning, is available to all members of staff within the Ministry of Justice and processes are in place to ensure that where there is a business and development need learning can be accessed. There are currently 22 professions across the civil service and each will have their own framework of qualifications.
In order to answer the question in detail we will need to contact every profession, request the framework and then identify the costs for each qualification. In addition we will need to interrogate the Civil Service Learning portal to identify each professions qualifications and costs. This information is not readily available and is not held centrally and therefore would incur disproportionate cost to obtain.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his 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 Shailesh Vara
The Ministry of Justice does not centrally record the legal fees incurred by the Department in obtaining legal advice in relation to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. To obtain this information from across the Ministry would incur a disproportionate cost.