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Written Question
Members: Correspondence
Monday 17th July 2023

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Luton South dated 28 June 2023.

Answered by Jesse Norman

A response was sent on 12th July.


Written Question
Department for Transport: Written Questions
Wednesday 16th November 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer from the Minister of State to the Question from the hon. Member for Luton South of 13 October 2022, Official Report, column 234, when he plans to respond in more detail on Luton station.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

I wrote to the Hon Member on 3 November 2022 regarding Luton Station, on behalf of my predecessor, following the question of 13 October 2022.


Written Question
Department of Transport: Information Officers
Thursday 16th June 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on (a) internal communications and b) employing staff to work on internal communications in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2021.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The costs incurred by the central department for the DfT Internal Communications team for the years requested are as follows:

a) Non pay costs for internal communications

2019: £224,481

2020: £262,479

2021: £176,401

b) Pay costs for internal communications

Pay costs include full pay costs (including salary, employee contributions, pension), and also any posts which subsequently became vacant during the financial year.

2019: £568,098

2020: £679,780

2021: £606,689


Written Question
Department of Transport: Social Media
Thursday 16th June 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on (a) producing digital and video content, (b) employing in-house staff to produce that content and (c) paying external companies and people to produce that content in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2021.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

(a) The information requested could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

(b) The information requested on in-house staff cost is not recorded in the level of granularity sought. However, we currently have four members of staff in the creative content team who all work on producing digital and video content as part of their roles. Please refer to the department’s Annual Report and Accounts for more information on staff salaries, if required: (Page 141 onwards: Annual Report and Accounts 2020–21 (publishing.service.gov.uk))

(c) The information requested could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Department for Transport: Public Opinion
Monday 13th June 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on (a) focus groups and (b) polling services in 2021.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information requested could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Department for Transport: Photographs and Video Recordings
Monday 13th June 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) photographers and (b) video producers were employed by his Department in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2021.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The breakdown for video producers employed by the Department for Transport is as follows; in 2019 one video producer, in 2020 two video producers and in 2021 two video producers.

No photographers were employed by the Department for Transport between 2019 and 2021.


Written Question
Department for Transport: Recruitment
Monday 13th June 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent in total on external recruitment consultants in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021; how many full time equivalent posts were filled as a result of that expenditure; and how many of those posts were filled by people recruited from outside the civil service.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Due to the financial reporting system in the department it is not possible to separate out spend associated with external recruitment constancy services from all other consultancy spend for the majority of departmental recruitment.


Written Question
Department for Transport: Information Officers
Monday 13th June 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people were employed by his Department to work on internal communications in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The central department employed the following number of staff in the Internal Communications team. The numbers provided are for employee headcount as at 31 March of each year and do not include any vacant posts.

2019: 10 employees

2020: 10 employees

2021: 7 employees


Written Question
Department for Transport: Management Consultants
Monday 13th June 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on external management consultants in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021; and what ten projects or work areas in each of those financial years required the greatest expenditure on support from those consultants.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following link provides the total published spend on consultants for the core Department, covering financial years 2018-19 to 2020-21: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dft-annual-reports-and-accounts.

The department is not able to identify the top 10 projects in the time available, however, the main areas of spend over the last 3 years has been on Rail and Aviation related projects.


Written Question
Department for Transport: Remote Working
Wednesday 23rd March 2022

Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of increased homeworking during the covid-19 outbreak on his Department’s carbon footprint.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

No assessment has been carried out regarding the impact of increased homeworking during the covid-19 outbreak on the Department's carbon footprint

Since all legal restrictions in England have been lifted, all Department for Transport employees are required to return to working in their respective workplaces - with full time home working only permitted on an exceptional basis.