Answers issued to Members on 16 July 2008

[R] signifies that the Member has declared an interest.
[W] signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.

Contents

Questions to the First Minister

Questions to the Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery

Questions to the Minister for Heritage

Questions to the First Minister

Alun Cairns (South Wales West): Would the Minister state the total amount of bonuses paid to Senior Civil Servants in WAG for each of the last 9 financial years? (WAQ52196)

The First Minister (Rhodri Morgan): The total amount of bonuses paid to Senior Civil Servants in the Assembly Government since 2003/2004 is:

These payments were made in accordance with the Senior Civil Service pay system which is determined by the UK Government on the advice of the independent Senior Salaries Review Body. Bonuses are paid in recognition of performance in the preceding year i.e. bonuses paid in 2007/08 relate to performance in 2006/07.

I am unable to provide figures prior to 2003/04 because the Assembly Government changed payroll providers in 2003 and we do not therefore have the necessary payroll reporting facility.

Ann Jones (Vale of Clwyd): How many people are employed by the Welsh Assembly Government in Rhyl and Colwyn Bay? (WAQ52230)

The First Minister: There are 87 people employed by the Welsh Assembly Government in Rhyl and Colwyn Bay. This figure is broken down as follows:

Rhyl—3

Colwyn Bay—84.

Questions to the Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery

Nick Bourne (Mid and West Wales): How many pages have been deleted from the Welsh Assembly Government website in each year since it was established, broken down into subject matter? (WAQ52171)

The Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery (Andrew Davies): In April 2006, the Welsh Assembly Government purchased and implemented an enterprise class content management system(1) to manage the corporate website. This system allows us to proactively manage our content and is widely used in the government and public sector.  

The way in which content is managed on the Welsh Assembly Government website means that it is not possible to quantify the amount of content deleted by topic area.  

Every month around 300 items comprising web pages, word documents, PDF documents and images are deleted from the site. However, not all of these have previously been published to the website and most are early drafts or publishing errors.

When content is created for the website, it goes through a circular life cycle (2), where it is created, checked, published, reviewed and, if necessary, archived. Where content is updated, the previous version is overwritten. Should the need arise, previous versions can be recovered through the content management system or from one of the overnight backups, depending how long ago it was published.

At the time of launch in April 2006, we calculated that around 6,633 pages of Welsh Assembly Government content were rewritten or deleted during the transfer to the new website and 7,863 pages from the merging organisations. All content from the old Welsh Assembly Government website was archived prior to the launch of the new site.

(1) Enterprise Content Management is the technology used to Capture, Manage, Store, Preserve, and Deliver content and documents related to organisational processes.

(2) The lifecycle for WAG web content is as follows: New, Review, Translation, Post Translation Review, Publish and Archive. If a page is reused then it is moved back to new status to restart the cycle.

Nick Bourne (Mid and West Wales): What official guidance is given to Welsh Assembly Government staff on the use of sustainable methods of transport when conducting official business? (WAQ52173)

Andrew Davies: Staff are expected to choose the most sustainable travel option when conducting official business. The Greening Operations Intranet site advises staff to always consider video or audio conferencing and avoid travel altogether if possible. If travel cannot be avoided, staff are advised to opt for the most sustainable mode of travel in the circumstances. If car use is essential, cars may be hired through a contract, which provides vehicles banded by their CO2 emissions. This allows the Assembly Government to adhere to the current environmental target to hire vehicles with CO2 emissions of equal to or less than 130g/km. When travel by using a personal vehicle is considered appropriate encouragement is given to car sharing by providing the driver with an allowance of 5p per passenger carried.

In addition, the WAG Environmental Policy Statement 2007-08 contains the following key objectives:

• To take forward a new WAG Travel Policy, which emphasizes alternatives to travel and use of more sustainable modes where travel is necessary, then to use this to develop specific Travel Plans for our offices;

• To extend use of conferencing technology, limit car hire and leasing to low emissions (<130gCO2/km) vehicles, introduce green fleet management and consider ways of reducing car use on business.

These objectives are currently being taken forward.

Nick Bourne (Mid and West Wales): What assessment has the First Minister made of the potential energy and financial savings which could be made if Welsh Assembly Government staff switched off personal computers when not in use? (WAQ52176)

Andrew Davies: The savings possible are dependent on type of desktop equipment, which is changing during the current transformation of ICT equipment. As more energy efficient equipment is installed the energy expended will reduce. This means that the amount that can actually be saved by switching off personal computers, in energy and financial terms, will correspondingly reduce although savings can still be made.

127,742 kWh, based on 7,582 workstations consuming 3 watts during standby, would be saved annually during weekday evenings (12 hours per night) and weekends (48 hours). This is around 0.7% of the Assembly Government’s annual electricity consumption and would save £8,942 per annum at an average 7p per unit.

The ICT Usage Rules state that workstations should be switched off during the night. Staff are reminded about this through Homepage notices on the Intranet.

Questions to the Minister for Heritage

Kirsty Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire): Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Assembly Governments policy of promoting Wales’ tourism products to the home market? (WAQ52193)

The Minister for Heritage (Rhodri Glyn Thomas): Many factors are taken into account in assessing which markets offer the most potential for tourism in Wales. In recent years Visit Wales and before that the Wales Tourist Board focused on markets outside of Wales because it was felt that other public sector organisations and tourism businesses could address the Welsh market. External markets are more difficult to penetrate and Visit Wales is better equipped to tackle these. This policy is kept under review and the review of the tourism industry that I have commissioned in conjunction with the Wales Tourism Alliance will assess the markets which offer the most potential for Wales.