Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of officials in her Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in each of the last five years; and what proportion of total sick leave such sick leave was in each such year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is set out in the table below.
Financial Year | Number of staff with absence due to stress in period | % of all staff with absence due to stress (headcount as at end of period) | Working days lost due to stress as a % of total WDL in period |
2014-2015 | 111 | 3% | 16% |
2013-2014 | 87 | 3% | 14% |
2012-2013 | 91 | 2% | 12% |
2011-2012 | 69 | 2% | 11% |
2010-2011 | 65 | 3% | 16% |
We do not hold data on the causes of stress resulting in absence and it cannot be inferred that such stress is work related.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) publications, (b) consultation documents and (c) circulars her Department has issued since August 2012; and what the title was of each such publication, consultation document or circular.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since August 2012 the Department for Education has issued: 997 publications[1] and 121 consultation exercises. Since 2012 a digital-by-default policy has applied to departmental publications and consultations. These are available on GOV.UK.
The department no longer uses the term circulars as a publication type. The department issues emails to schools and local authorities periodically to draw their attention to information and guidance that has been published on GOV.UK. 321 such email newsletters were issued in the period in question. These are referenced by the date issued and audience, and so there is no list of titles available.
Attachment A shows the titles of DfE publications since August 2012.
Attachment B shows the titles of DfE consultations carried out since August 2012.
[1] This information has been sourced from GOV.UK. It is possible that some records may be incomplete for the period prior to the migration to GOV.UK (August 2012 to August 2013).
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many consultants' contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The amount spent on overtime payments to Department for Education staff, for the period 1 February 2014 to 31 January 2016. | |
January 2016 | £38,582 |
December 2015 | £44,893 |
November 2015 | £44,199 |
October 2015 | £37,132 |
September 2015 | £26,742 |
August 2015 | £26,380 |
July 2015 | £40,209 |
June 2015 | £36,238 |
May 2015 | £24,935 |
April 2015 | £27,064 |
March 2015 | £75,077 |
February 2015 | £46,706 |
January 2015 | £42,115 |
December 2014 | £44,897 |
November 2014 | £47,101 |
October 2014 | £40,816 |
September 2014 | £34,065 |
August 2014 | £35,993 |
July 2014 | £54,989 |
June 2014 | £45,488 |
May 2014 | £53,055 |
April 2014 | £36,765 |
March 2014 | £64,346 |
February 2014 | £53,992 |
These figures are for the core Department and cover payments to employees and to contingent labour. Those provided for the period April 2015 to January 2016 are as yet unaudited.
All employees on Department for Education contracts from grades EA to SEO are entitled to overtime payments. Grades 7 and 6 are not entitled to overtime but can claim discretionary payments for exceptionally long hours.
Overtime costs are typically around 0.5% of the total monthly payroll.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many civil law suits have been brought against her Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not available because separate data for cases based wholly or partially on the Human Rights Act 1998 are not recorded.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The cost of Employment Tribunals can be found within the HMCTS annual accounts published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433948/hmcts-annual-report-accounts-2014-15.pdf
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions a special adviser in her Department accompanied a Minister on an overseas trip since May 2015.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On one occasion since May 2015 a special adviser employed by the Department for Education has accompanied the Minister for Childcare and Education on an overseas visit to France.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's advertising and communications expenditure was in each month since September 2014; and what that expenditure is forecast to be in March 2015.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education has very significantly reduced the cost of its communications since 2010. The Department coordinates communications activities to ensure they are focused and effective, using low-cost campaigns wherever possible.
The total spend on agency creative development and evaluation between Sept 2014 and March 2015 will be £385,000. The total spend for media advertising is £1,649,949.
Due to the delivery of commissions from PR agencies, we are unable to provide a monthly breakdown of costs for the total communications budget. We can however provide monthly breakdowns for spend for media advertising campaigns. This is set out the table below.
Month 2014-15 | Media spend start £* |
Sept ** | 619,045.70 |
Oct | nil |
Nov | 224,650 |
Dec | 238,590 |
Jan | 43,838.59 |
Feb | 329,994.65 |
March | 238,830 |
* Due to the nature of receipting by external contractors, we have provided information for expenditure per month according to the marketing materials’ first appearance.
** The first tranche of the childcare campaign commenced w/c 25 August and ran throughout September
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which (a) individuals, (b) companies and (c) other organisations receive Christmas cards from her Department.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This information is not collected by the Department for Education and can only be compiled at disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on catering and hospitality since May 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Detailed information in the form requested is not held centrally and could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.