Monday 18 October 2010

A Few Interesting Facts



This blogger has been scanning recent Parliamentary Answers and found some interesting facts.

I decided to have a read of his link and discovered the following.  You may well find some more which make you realise the poor level of administration we have within the civil service.




Departmental Assets

Mr Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which former (a) buildings and (b) land owned by (i) his Department and (ii) (A) non-departmental public bodies and (B) agencies for which his Department is responsible have been sold since May 2005; what the sale price of each was at the time of sale; and to which body the funds from the sale accrued in each case. [12340]
Norman Baker: The requested information has been placed in the Library of the House. Sales proceeds were retained by the Agency disposing of the land or building.
The Information requested at (ii) (A) is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.




Departmental Consultants

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the (a) average and (b) highest daily rate paid to consultants by his Department was in each of the last five years. [13064]
Norman Baker: This information is not held centrally, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.





Departmental Public Relations

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the monetary value was of (a) public opinion research and (b) public relations contracts awarded by his Department in each of the last five years in each (i) nation and (ii) region of the UK. [12444]

6 Sep 2010 : Column 181W
Norman Baker: The information requested is not available centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.



Do you see a pattern developing with the Secretary of State for Transport?  Mike Weir, Alun Cairns and Pete Wishart asked questions which would be of interest to the general public.  I'd like to know how much government has made from the sale of properties, the average and daily rate paid to consultants by the Department of Transport and the cost of his department's PR.

Our government compiles databases regularly and none of us is sure where our own personal details are kept or by whom.  That's a disproportionate cost.

10 comments:

Captain Ranty said...

I think, Rosie, that if we truly knew just what this (and previous) government have withheld from us, we would be gobsmacked.

They lie. They lie all the time.

About everything.

CR.

subrosa said...

They couldn't even be bothered to lie here CR so decided the words 'disproportionate cost' would suffice.

It scares me what goes on. Have just done another post for tomorrow about more dark goings on.

Sue said...

So much for transparency and FOI!!!!

JuliaM said...

For a government desperate to centralise everything else, they sure made some glaring (and fortunate!) omissions, didn't they?

Derek said...

FOI was one of 'their' big mistakes. Now they are stuffing anything they can find to plug the hole up. Disproportionate costs is just one phrase. They collude with one another to prevent information getting out unless it suits them. I've had just such an experience with local Councillors over attempts at gleaning road safety information, and by a slip of one persons 'mouse' I became party to an email meant for committee confirming to one another not to communicate with a certain party as his questions were hitting home hard. They're all bastards.

subrosa said...

Looks like we now have to trawl through Hansard to find any form of truth Sue.

subrosa said...

They did indeed Julia and this government don't seem super keen to improve matters.

subrosa said...

I'd seen 'disproportionate costs' previously but to see it in three successive questions thumped the matter home Derek.

I can well imagine that happens. After I sent an FOI to a government funded organisation some years ago (I dealt with them as a customer), I noticed the attitude changed from pleasant to ignorant.

Indyanhat said...

the real and only disproportinate costs are the costs to the british public paying for these mendacious MP's ,their salaries, severance packages,expenses etc etc, and their blatant theft of both our sovereignty (sold to the EU) and the bail out of the bankers, leaving us as nothing more than economic slaves!

subrosa said...

I must admit Indyan lots of folk mention economic slaves these days. Yet our politicians ignore it.

As for Clegg's remark about the middle classes must pay the price, don't get me started.

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