Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many times the (a) Union Jack, (b) St George's flag, (c) Scottish Saltire and (d) flag of Wales has been flown from the headquarters of her Department in London in each year since 2015.
Answered by Wendy Morton
DFID flies flags in accordance with DCMS policy.
In the London office the Union Jack is flown every day that another flag is not flown. The Scottish Saltire is flown every day from the DFID office in East Kilbride, Scotland.
Since 2015, the other flags were flown from the London office as follows:
Date | St. George | Scottish Saltire | Wales Flag |
2015 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
2016 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
2017 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
2018 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many (a) Union Jack, (b) St George, (c) Scottish Saltire and (d) Flag of Wales flags her Department owns.
Answered by Wendy Morton
DFID has two headquarter buildings in the UK; one at 22 Whitehall and the other at Abercrombie house in East Kilbride.
DFID own and fly flags in accordance with DCMS policy. The total number of flags owned across both buildings are:
(a) 9 x Union Jacks
(b) 2 x St George
(c) 4 x Scottish Saltire
(d) DFID does not own any Welsh flags.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans his Department has to mark International Men's Day on 19 November 2019.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
No one should suffer unfair treatment because of their gender. Every year International Men’s Day offers an opportunity to highlight how outcomes for men and boys can be improved and to talk about some of the important work going on every day across Government to do this.
Gender equality is a top development priority, and a top priority for the UK – but it will not be achieved without engaging men and boys. Too often men and boys are invisible in work towards gender equality, or portrayed as perpetrators, when they can be powerful advocates for positive change and survivors of violence themselves.
DFID recognises that harmful social norms are the root cause of many of the challenges faced by girls and women, boys and men. In Pakistan, DFID programming saw levels of corporal punishment experienced by boys decrease by 26%. There were also improvements in gender-equitable attitudes and depression, and reduced reports of witnessing domestic violence.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much his Department has spent on purchasing (a) national newspapers and (b) newspaper online subscriptions since 2016; and how many copies of each national newspaper were purchased in that time period.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 2 September 2019, DFID has spent an estimated £47,000 since the start of financial year 2016/17 on newspaper subscriptions (both physical and online). Broken down by year:
Financial year | Estimated spend |
2016/17 | £12,000 |
2017/18 | £12,500 |
2018/19 | £17,000 |
2019/20 | £5,500 |
These figures are estimates because the costs of some newspaper subscriptions are combined with magazine subscriptions and cannot be disaggregated.
Information on the total spent specifically on online subscriptions and the number of each individual newspaper procured is not held centrally and could only be collated at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the main policy priority is for her Department for 2018; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Department for International Development (DFID) published an updated Single Departmental Plan on 23 May 2018. This set out the department’s main policy objectives and how it will achieve them. DFID’s Single Departmental Plan will be revised annually to reflect new priorities or changes in responsibilities.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many contractors currently employed by her Department are paid £1,000 or more per day.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID do not hold this information. The data relating to contractors pay is not held in a central source. DFID consider there to be a disproportionate cost to provide this information.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many contractors have been employed by her Department for (a) up to one year, (b) between one and five years, (c) between five and 10 years and (d) over 10 years.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The data relating to contractors is not held in a central source. Depending on the area of business, the responsibilities undertaken and the nature of the engagement, this could be held in several places. Consolidation would be manual and onerous. We consider there to be a disproportionate cost to provide this information.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the job titles are of civil servants in her Department who have been provided with (a) an official car and (b) a driver.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
There are no Civil Servants in DFID who have been provided with an official car or driver.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which regulations her Department (a) has introduced as a result of EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to date and (b) expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2018 and (ii) 2019; and what estimate she has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID has not introduced any regulations as a result of EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to date and does not plan to implement any regulations as a result of EU legislation in 2018 or 2019.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many of her Department's staff had a pay increase (a) above, (b) at and (c) less than one per cent in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Information of the level of DFID staff’s pay increases over the last 3 years is included in the attached table. A pay deal for 2016 has not yet been concluded.