§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the processing of the returned questionnaires to his committee on remunerating 535W local councillors will be carried out by departmental officers or by an external agency; and, if the latter, whether he will (a) name the firm involved and (b) indicate the methods by which security of the personal information involved will be maintained.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettThe independent Committee of Inquiry into the System of Remuneration of Members of Local Authorities commissioned this survey, which is being carried out by the Department's statisticians with support from Computer Aided Marketing Ltd. When a public contract is let the contractor is reminded that the provisions of the Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1939 apply to any official information to which the staff may have access during the programme of work and to make appropriate arrangements for the physical security of the data.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether he will give assurances regarding the questionnaire relating to councillors' private circumstances that (a) no copies will be retained once the information is processed, (b) no information of any kind will be passed to any other Government Department in a way which identifies personal cases, (c) no records of any kind will be retained on a computer or microfilm by his department and (d) only specific, named civil servants acting as secretariat to the committee, bound by the Official Secrets Act, will be permitted to see the returned questionnaire;
(2) why the questionnaire issued by his departmental committee on remunerating local councillors seeks information on (a) the marital status, (b) the salaries, (c) the private income, (d) the size of the household, (e) the housing tenure, (f) the academic qualifications and (g) the telephone number of the recipients; to what purpose this personal information will be put; how many people will see it; and how soon after receipt it will be either destroyed or the original returned to the councillor without a departmental photocopy being taken.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettOn behalf of the chairman of this independent committee I can assure the hon. Member that no copies will be retained or made; no information identifying individuals will be536W passed to any other Department or retained on computer or microfilm records; and copies will be destroyed as soon as the Committee has completed its work. The forms are available only to the statistical staff concerned with their analysis; all civil servants and contractors are in any case bound by the Official Secrets Act.
I understand that the committee considers that the information it is seeking about councillors is a very important factor in its study of the problem of remuneration, and many of the questions were derived from the very similar survey conducted in 1964–65 by the Maud Committee on the Management of Local Government in order to obtain comparative information. Respondents' telephone numbers were requested simply in order to allow minor queries on the completed questionnaire to be dealt with quickly.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) who are the members of the committee of inquiry into the system of remuneration of members of local authorities; what salary or expenses they receive for this work; and what is the size and annual cost of the Civil Service establishment serving as secretariat to this committee;
(2) what is the cost to public funds of (a) preparing, (b) distributing and (c) collating the returns of the questionnaire sent to local councillors regarding their personal circumstances, prepared by his committee on remunerating local councillors.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettI would refer the hon. Member to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) on 22nd December.—[Vol. 923, c.213.] The chairman receives a daily rate of £25 and the members £21; all receive travelling and subsistence allowances at Civil Service rates. The secretariat, consisting of one part-time and three full-time staff, would cost in a full year approximately £36,000, including all overheads. The questionnaire cost £2,000 to prepare and £1,100 to distribute, and will cost £8,000 to analyse.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment why his departmental committee of inquiry 537W into the system of remuneration of members of local authorities sent a seven-page questionnaire to Councillor L. G. Duncan of 52 Outwoods Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire; to how many other members of the Charnwood Borough Council this document was sent; and whether he will give an assurance that there is no statutory duty, or legal requirement, for any councillor to complete or return this questionnaire, and it is open to them to throw it away on receipt if they so wish.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettI understand from the chairman of this independent committee that the names were selected by random interval sampling from a complete list of all councillors. Councillor Duncan was selected along with 16 other members of Charnwood Borough Council. I can assure the hon. Member that the completion of the questionnaire is entirely voluntary, but I hope councillors will feel able to respond and thereby help the Committee in its task.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment to how many local councillors document LG/HP/5, prepared by his committee of inquiry into the system of remuneration of members of local authorities, was sent; what proportion that represents of all local councillors in Great Britain; how many had failed to reply by 7th February, and were then sent document LG1/HP/5 asking them to fill up the questionnaire attached to LG/HP/5; how many have since replied; and how many replies remain outstanding.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettI understand from the chairman of this independent committee that 6,500 questionnaires were sent; this is a 25 per cent. sample. 4,700 replies have been received to date. Of these 1,400 have arrived since 7th February; 1,800 are still outstanding.