Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many ministerial directions were issued to her Department in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Department has not issued any ministerial directions in the years listed.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many times his Department's Senior Information Risk Officer role has been vacant for a week or longer since 2012.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The role of Departmental Senior Information Risk Officer has not been vacant for any period of time since 2012.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many data incidents his Department (a) recorded and (b) reported to the Information Commissioner's Office in (i) 2015-16 and (ii) 2016-17.
Answered by Chloe Smith
No data incidents have been recorded or reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office for the years 2015-16 or 2016-17.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what representations Ministers of his Department have received from Bell Pottinger on behalf of (a) Atos IT Services UK Limited, (b) the British Horseracing Authority, (c) Centrica PLC, (d) DS Smith plc, (e) Ernst & Young, (f) Heads of the Valleys Development Company Limited, (g) Monarch Holdings Limited and (h) Waitrose Limited.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Department holds no record of any such representations.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to the oral contribution of the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union to the House of Lords European Union Committee on 31 October, how many civil servants his Department (a) has recruited and (b) expects to recruit to work on leaving the EU.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Exiting the European Union is an all-of-government operation. The Department for Exiting the European Union is doing detailed work with departments to prepare for the upcoming negotiations by understanding the risks and opportunities of leaving the EU and coordinating planning.
EU exit affects a number of work areas across my Department and will therefore encompass a proportion of workload for many staff, the amount of which will vary over time. My Department has recently restructured its approach to the way it handles EU exit work, moving from a central EU exit co-ordinating team of 7 to a position in which core EU exit work is distributed more widely across the whole department. The number of staff working on leaving the EU will be kept under review to ensure we have the appropriate resources available. Given the interactions between EU exit work and my Department’s other priorities, it would not be possible to give an accurate figure in relation to future recruitment.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether his Department holds a central list of the IT and digital assets of its arm's-length bodies.
Answered by Chloe Smith
This information is not held centrally as the management of IT and digital assets is an operational matter for individual arms-length bodies which operate independently from central government.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2016-17, whether the one person who left the core department and the one person who left the departmental group were men or women.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Where there is fewer than five staff in any given category, we are unable to provide a breakdown by gender as to do so could lead to the identification of an individual.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2017 to Question 8744, Northern Ireland Office: buildings, from who the sub-let income in 2016-17 was from; and for what length of time that part of his Department's estate was sub-let.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Pursuant to the answer to question 8744, my Department has received sub-let income of £43,751 from the Civil Service Commissioners for Northern Ireland since 2013-14 and £20,000 from the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland since 2016-17. Both of these organisations are still sub-letting accommodation from the Northern Ireland Office.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2017 to Question 7938, on Northern Ireland Office: consultants, to who and for what work the daily rate contracts were awarded; to who the other contract referred to in that Answer was awarded; what payment system was used for that other contract; and what work that other contract involved.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Pursuant to my previous answer to question 7938, I can confirm that the two daily rate contracts were awarded to Mercator IT Solutions for specialist independent services to assist in the introduction of a new IT platform, and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) for specialist independent services to assist in improving financial management processes. The final contract referred to in that answer was awarded to Murcom on an hourly rate basis for specialist independent services to assist with the introduction of a new records management system.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2017 to Question 8763, on Northern Ireland Office: procurement, if he will provide details of the procurement that took more than one year to complete.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The procurement that took more than one year to complete was to award a contract to carry out the installation and maintenance of security measures under the auspices of the Northern Ireland Office's Home Protection Scheme.