Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much the Department spent on communications staff in (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22.
Answered by Conor Burns
Departmental spend on communications staff was £358,430 in 2019-20, £331,262 in 2020-21 and £564,014 in 2021-22.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many communications staff are employed by his Department (a) full time, (b) part time and (c) on flexible working arrangements as of 19 April 2022.
Answered by Conor Burns
The number of staff working to deliver the communications function in the Northern Ireland Office is 13. All are employed on a full-time basis; there are no part-time communications staff. There are communications staff on flexible working arrangements but there are fewer than 5 on this arrangement.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many records her Department holds that have reached the time limit for their transfer to the National Archives but have not been transferred.
Answered by John Penrose
The Public Records Act defines a record as a document. The Northern Ireland Office does not have a record of how many documents have reached their time limit for transfer to the National Archives. It would incur disproportionate costs to answer this question.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working at his Department and its agencies in each of the last six years; and what the total cost of those bonuses was.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
As part of the Government’s transparency agenda, departments publish annual information on the number of awards and spend on end-year and in-year Non-Consolidated Performance Related Pay. The information for my Department for the years 2012-13 to 2015-16 can be found at:
2012-13
2013-14
2014-15
2015-16
2016-17
Information has not yet been published for this year, however four bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working at my Department with a total cost of £45,000.
2017-18
Decisions on bonuses for the most recent year have not yet been taken.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much money her Department has spent on hospitality in each of the last five years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
My Department has spent the following on hospitality in each of the last five years;
2013/14 - £67,492
2014/15 - £53,769
2015/16 - £34,841
2016/17 - £59,755
2017/18 - £94,085
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many people in his Department with responsibility for social media are employed on an (a) full and (b) part-time basis.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Northern Ireland Office Communications team currently has a total of 6 staff members. One full-time officer has responsibility for all aspects of social media engagement. However, as part of their role as Government Communications Officers, all communications team members are required to carry out a wide range of communications activities.Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much his Department has spent on advertising on social media in each month since January 2016.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Since January 2016, the Department has not incurred any expenditure for advertising on social media.