http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090706/text/90706w0004.htm#09070625000059

 

Animal Health: Manpower

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) directors, (b) senior managers, (c) specialist and delivery managers and (d) executive support and administration staff there were in each office of Animal Health and its predecessors in each of the last five years. [282140]

Jim Fitzpatrick: I will place this information in the Library.

Animal Health: Pay

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much was paid in bonuses to (a) directors, (b) senior managers, (c) specialist and delivery managers and (d) executive support and administration staff in the Animal Health Agency in each of the last five years. [280608]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The following table details how much was paid in bonuses to (a) directors, (b) senior managers, (c) specialist and delivery managers and (d) executive support and administration staff in the Animal Health Agency.

Data are for the last three years only, reflecting whole financial years that Animal Health has been a separate financial entity from DEFRA.

6 July 2009 : Column 525W

6 July 2009 : Column 526W

			£
	Group( 1)	Bonus type	Type total( 2)	Group total( 3)	Annual total	Grand total
2008	Directors	Special	3,704.00	---	---	---
		Annual	53,500.00	---	---	---
				57,204.00	---	---
	Senior managers	Special	62,929.00		---	---
		Annual	2,850.48	---	---	---
				65,779.48	---	---
	Specialist and delivery managers	Special	94,279.00	---	---	---
		Annual	2,341.51	---	---	---
				96,620.51	---	---
	Executive support and admin staff	Special	124,144.00	---	---	---
		Annual	7,149.08	---	---	---
				131,293.08	---	---
				---	350,897.07	---
2007	Directors	Special	44,000.00	---	---	---
		Annual		---	---	---
				44,000.00	---	---
	Senior managers	Special	50,148.00	---	---	---
		Annual	1,971.42	---	---	---
				52,119.42	---	---
	Specialist and delivery managers	Special	98,445.00	---	---	---
		Annual	2,200.02	---	---	---
				100,645.02	---	---
	Executive support and admin staff	Special	135,841.00	---	---	---
		Annual	9,528.57	---	---	---
				145,369.57	---	---
				---	342,134.01	---
2006	Directors	Special	33,000.00	---	---	---
		Annual		---	---	---
				33,000.00	---	---
	Senior managers	Special	51,738.00
		Annual	2,900.00	---	---	---
				54,638.00	---	---
	Specialist and delivery managers	Special	79,511.00	---	---	---
		Annual	24,625.00	---	---	---
				104,136.00	---	---
	Executive support and admin staff	Special	114,235.00	---	---	---
		Annual	26,995.00	---	---	---
				141,230.00	---	---
				---	333,004.00	---
				---	---	1,026,035.08
(1) The standard grades have been categorised into these groups as follows: Directors: Senior civil service. Senior managers: Grade 6, Grade 7, senior executive officer, regional operations director. Specialist and delivery managers: Veterinary officer, senior animal health officer, animal health officer, regional field manager, technical team leader, regional veterinary leader, veterinary team leader, egg marketing inspector, regional egg marketing inspector. Executive support and admin staff: Regional resilience manager, regional administration manager, higher executive officer, executive officer, administrative officer, administrative assistant, personal secretary, Pay band 2.0 Department of Environment and Transport (DETR), Pay band 5.3 DETR, Support Grade Band 1 (2) Data are based on the current staff listings. The figures do not include any staff paid bonuses in the last three years who are no longer with the agency. (3) Data are based on the individual's current grade. Anyone who has been promoted in the last three years will be shown at their current grade, not at the grade they were when the bonus was received.

April 25 2009 ~ DEFRA spending on opinion polls, focus groups and market research

The table given by Huw Irranca Davies in reply to PQ 263608 on Wednesday suggests, after a quick calculation, that such expenditure (on researching and shaping public perceptions) since DEFRA was formed in the wake of foot and mouth in 2001, has passed £4 million.
Our own inability to understand exactly what all this money was spent on is evidently shared by a reader who comments:
"...2007-8: Defra spent over £100,000 on researching Business perceptions of Defra in two separate studies in 2008, and over £28,000 on Farming Link - Qualitative newsletter evaluation. What on earth is "Farmers segmentation" which comes in at over £56,000?
2006-6: Environmental branding gets nearly £30,000 which is significantly more than Avian flu research approx. £26,000 - and Environment Direct Branding Research warrants a further approx. £57,000. Segmentation quantification costs £11,000 - what on earth is that?
2005-6 The Perceptions of DEFRA - General public tracking 2005 sounds distinctly ominous at £26,000. .."
The writer suggests that 'Perceptions of DEFRA' might have been discovered rather more cheaply - and are hardly helped by all this jargon, which should be consigned to the dustbin (along with all the other such bizarre examples of non English as coterminous stakeholder engagement).

February 9 2008 ~ Three cheers for the Plain English Campaign

The Telegraph today tells us that such terms as "multi-agency", "revenue streams", "seedbed", "improvement lever", and "community engagement" are on the Plain English Campaign's hit list. They are telling local councils that local democracy depends on understandable communication - not jargon. How much more important then that jargon should be banned from the lips of powerful and highly-paid officials such as Helen Ghosh. As one emailer wrote recently a propos DEFRAspeak, "Dare I ask, does Defra have CSE?"