§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for #oreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much the Foreign Office spent on press officers(a) in 1996–97 and (b) the latest year for which figures are available, broken down by grade. [184501]
§ Mr. StrawThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent the following amounts on different grades of staff in its press office. These amounts are based on an average salary for the grade, employer national insurance and superannuation for each grade, and therefore do not reflect actual payments to press office staff.
£ SMS 183,734 Band D 341,873 Band C 333,122 Band B 130,705 Band A 80,372 The salary costs for overseas press officers and all costs requested for 1996–97 are not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much the Department spent on(a) mobile phones, (b) hospitality and (c) taxis in (i) 1996–97 and (ii) the latest accounting period. [184504]
1062W
§ Mr. StrawThe information is as follows:
Mobile phones
1996–97: £169,356.77
2003–04: £680,527.56.
This does not include the costs of mobile phones for staff overseas. Responsibility for such contracts is devolved to our overseas missions and the relevant figures could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Entertainment 1996–97
DS Entertainment Fund, used for official hospitality by Ministers and Officers in London: £383,507.89
Accountable Entertainment Allowance spent on official hospitality abroad by officers with representational duties against a personal authorised ceiling: £3,865,746.74
Frais expenditure by Heads of Mission on official hospitality abroad: £5,532,641.13
Total for 1996–97: £9,781,895.76
2003–04
Direct Entertainment Expenditure in London and at Post, that includes the DS Entertainment Fund and expenditure from a system of local entertainment budgets abroad that replaced the former Accountable Entertainment Allowance for individual officers: £4,178,832.75
Frais expenditure by Heads of Mission on official entertainment abroad: £4,103,380.55
Total for 2003–04: £8,282,213.30
Between these two financial years, entertainment budgets have been largely devolved to individual FCO Directorates and some payments previously made directly to individual officers now have to be drawn against tighter objectives from pooled entertainment funds. The annual totals are not therefore altogether directly comparable.
Expenditure on hospitality for official guests invited to London from overseas for either year could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Official taxi contract spend for the two periods concerned are:
FY 1996–97: £113,058.09
FY 2003–04: £412,168.68
The 1996–07 figures may not provide a full picture of expenditure as they will not include the large ad-hoc use of black cab taxis in London by FCO staff. Staff would claim these costs via individual travel claims. This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
The figures relate to both the FCO's offices in London and Hanslope Park. Hanslope Park, since 1996–07, has developed into an important operational site to the Department and leads on major Projects such as Firecrest, the FCO Telecommunications Network and PRISM; hence the number of visitors has increased. The site is not supported by public transport links and use of taxi's to/from Central Milt#n Keynes (London main line) station has been the only method of reaching the site for train users. We have recognised the increased use of taxis at Hanslope Park and introduced an 'in-house' minibus service at peak times of the morning/ afternoon to cut costs. In addition, we are actively managing the taxi contracts to ensure value for money. We have also encouraged taxi-sharing where possible.
1063W
§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the cost was of printing Foreign Office headed notepaper in(a) 1996–97 and (b) the latest year for which figures are available. [184505]
§ Mr. StrawFor normal departmental use the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not use preprinted headed notepaper. FCO staff use electronic templates to print out the FCO letterhead. There are, however, some departments/posts which require the use of pre-printed headed paper.
Data from the financial year 1996–97 are not available, although headed paper produced by FCO Services Crystal Print cost £7.70 for 500 sheets in 1996–97. This does not include embossed letterheads which would have been sourced through an external supplier; financial data for this is not available.
The cost of obtaining 500 sheets of pre-printed letterheads from FCO Services Crystal Print is £49.00, £6.50 for each extra 500 thereafter. In 1996–97 the letterheads were charged at cost (ink and paper) as the artwork was supplied by a separate department, and pricing for the internal market had not been introduced fully. Now that the artwork is produced in house a charge for the set up fee of the artwork is included in the initial cost, hence the reduction in price for multiples of 500. This current price also includes full economic cost. For the latest period June 2003—June 2004, FCO Services Crystal Print took orders for about 133,000 sheets of letterheads, including continuation sheets, for both home and overseas departments. The total cost was approximately £5,200. This type of letterhead is produced in house, from layout to print. For the period June 2003 to July 2004 FCO Services Crystal Print ordered embossed letterheads to the value of £6,586 from external suppliers.