HC Deb 20 June 2002 vol 387 cc491-2W
Mr. Clifton-Brown

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) when he expects to announce specific ministerial responsibilities within his Department; [61619]

(2) how many staff are allocated to each of his responsibilities; and how many of these will be newly recruited; [61617]

(3) if he will list his Office's targets and estimate when he expects each of them to be met; [61620]

(4) if he will list the (a) special advisers and (b) press officers his Department employs; and how many more he plans to recruit; [61614]

(5) what the estimated cost is of re-organising his Department, broken down into (a) re-naming, (b) property refurbishment and (c) other matters. [61618]

The Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State (Mr. Prescott)

I lead an enlarged Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) at the centre of Government separated off from the Cabinet Office.

I am supported by: three Ministers of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford), my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Mrs. Roche), and my Noble Friend the right hon. Lord Rooker; two Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State, my hon. Friends the Members for Shipley (Mr. Leslie), and Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty). Mavis McDonald CB has been appointed Permanent Secretary.

As First Secretary of State, I will continue to deputise for the Prime Minister across the range of his responsibilities at home and abroad, and to chair a number of Cabinet committees and sub-committees. I will also continue to carry ministerial responsibility for the British Irish Council and the Joint Ministerial Committee.

The ODPM already contained the Social Exclusion Unit, the Regional Co-ordination Unit and the Government Offices for the Regions. The Office has now been expanded to include regional policy, local government, local government finance, planning, housing, urban policy, the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, the Fire Service and a number of executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Once the refurbishment is completed, the ODPM will be located at Ripley Court, Whitehall and Eland House, Victoria.

Specific ministerial responsibilities within the ODPM; staff allocated to each responsibility; ODPM targets; lists of special advisers and press officers; and the estimated cost of organising the ODPM, are still being considered.