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62101

registered interest
date	16/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Clerk of the House
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, what the composition will be of the selection committee for the appointment of the next Clerk of the House and Chief Executive; and what the composition was of the equivalent committee when the present postholder was appointed.
tabling member constituency	Chelmsford
tabling member printed	Mr Simon Burns
uin	200928
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2014 answer text <p>Three organisations specialising in executive search services were invited to tender to provide support for the recruitment of the next Clerk of the House and Chief Executive. Saxton Bampfylde was selected through this process.</p><p>The selection panel comprises Mr Speaker, Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP, Angela Eagle MP, John Thurso MP, Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP and Dame Julie Mellor (Parliamentary &amp; Health Service Ombudsman). No confirmation hearing is envisaged. The composition of the panel for the recruitment of the present postholder was Mr Speaker, Rt Hon Sir George Young MP, Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, John Thurso MP, Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith MP, Rt Hon Lindsay Hoyle MP and Sheila Drew Smith.</p><p>Knowledge of procedural and constitutional issues will be tested as part of the formal interview process. The Clerk of the House is appointed by the Crown by Letters Patent, on the recommendation of the Speaker to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister to the Crown. As part of normal pre-appointment checks it will be a requirement for the next Clerk of the House to be subject to security vetting. The terms of the recruitment brief were agreed by the Commission by correspondence, and the advertisement, finalised by the Speaker and the Director General of HR and Change, was based on the agreed brief.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso grouped question UIN 200924 200925 200926 200927 question first answered 19/06/2014 12:20:09 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	46 label Biography information for Sir Simon Burns

62105

registered interest
date	16/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Magna Carta: Anniversaries
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will incorporate into commemorations of the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta commemoration of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and the Putney debates in 1647 on how the country should be ruled.
tabling member constituency	Walsall North
tabling member printed	Mr David Winnick
uin	200965
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2014 answer text <p>Parliament will be managing a year-long programme to celebrate both the Magna Carta and De Montfort Parliament anniversaries in 2015. The programme will be entitled 'Parliament in the Making' and as such will include stories from throughout the last 800 years. Parliament is being advised on the content by the History of Parliament Trust. Through school resources, exhibitions, cultural projects and special events the significant moments, movements and individuals who have made a difference on the journey to rights and representation will be commemorated.</p><p>The programme is still in development but plans do include an exhibition in Westminster Hall. Using large scale banners this will chart the evolution of parliamentary democracy which we hope will refer to the Putney debates and the Peasants' Revolt in the context of the fight for representation and freedoms.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 19/06/2014 16:06:08 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	316 label Biography information for Mr David Winnick

62353

registered interest
date	17/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Palace of Westminster
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, what the cost to date has been of the contract for the Independent Assessment of Options to Take Forward a Restoration and Renewal Programme for the Palace of Westminster awarded to Deloitte Real Estate and AECOM together with HOK in December 2013.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Mark Hendrick
uin	201103
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2014 answer text <p>The full cost of the Independent Options Appraisal is expected to be £2,423K, including VAT. The cost incurred to 18 June 2014 was £2,213K, including VAT and a sum accrued but not yet invoiced. The cost is shared 60:40 between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 20/06/2014 11:39:42 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

62354

registered interest
date	17/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Committees
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, how many meetings of the Audit Committees has been held in each of the previous sessions of the current Parliament; and how many meetings each member has attended.
tabling member constituency	Christchurch
tabling member printed	Mr Christopher Chope
uin	201083
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2014 answer text <p>The House of Commons has two Audit Committees with the same membership, one for each of its Estimates: the Administration Estimate Audit Committee (AEAC) and the Members Estimate Audit Committee (MEAC). The House of Commons Administration Estimate covers the staff of the House and its running costs (the “House of Commons Service”). The Members Estimate covers certain expenditure relating to Members such as Members pensions and “Short money”.</p><p>Information about the Committees' activities is recorded on the basis of financial year, rather than Parliamentary sessions. Both Committees met six times during the financial year 2013–14. Committee members' attendance at these meetings is set out, and was the same for both Committees.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Member </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Total number of meetings attended </strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dame Janet Gaymer DBE (Chair)</p></td><td><p>3/3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Alex Jablonowski (Chair)</p></td><td><p>3/3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Stephen Brooker</p></td><td><p>6/6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Angela Eagle MP</p></td><td><p>0/6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Rt Hon Sir Alan Haselhurst MP</p></td><td><p>6/6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>John Thurso MP</p></td><td><p>5/6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Barbara Scott</p></td><td><p>5/6</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Information on previous financial years is in the Committees' annual reports which are at:</p><p><a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/other-committees/administration-estimate-audit/publications/" target="_blank">http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/other-committees/administration-estimate-audit/publications/</a></p><p><a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/other-committees/members-estimate-audit/publications/" target="_blank">http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/other-committees/members-estimate-audit/publications/</a></p><p>Individual members' attendance has been recorded in the annual reports only since financial year 2011–12. For earlier years this can be derived from the minutes of the meetings, which are also available on the Parliament Website.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 20/06/2014 09:12:08 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	242 label Biography information for Sir Christopher Chope

62352

registered interest
date	17/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Clerk of the House
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, what the criteria were for the choice of members of the panel of selection to consider the appointment of the next Clerk of the House and Chief Executive; and who selected those members.
tabling member constituency	Chelmsford
tabling member printed	Mr Simon Burns
uin	201113
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/06/2014 answer text <p>The selection panel that will consider the appointment of the next Clerk of the House was chosen by Mr Speaker and its composition was considered by the House of Commons Commission at its meeting on 16 June. The criteria for selection of panel members included party balance, gender balance and the need for external independent input.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 23/06/2014 15:25:39 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	46 label Biography information for Sir Simon Burns

62695

registered interest
date	18/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Parliament: WiFi
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, whether the Commission plans to modify the Parliamentary wifi system to enable automatic log-in by BlackBerry and other devices without the need to enter a username and password manually each time.
tabling member constituency	Lichfield
tabling member printed	Michael Fabricant
uin	201348
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2014 answer text <p>There are no immediate plans to change the current method of connection. PICT is aware of the restriction that the current arrangement places on users, and will look afresh at the authentication needed for known users of the guest Wi-Fi service, “Internet Direct”.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 24/06/2014 10:20:07 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	280 label Biography information for Michael Fabricant

62968

registered interest
date	19/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Parliamentary Information and Communications Technology Service
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, which contractors have been hired by PICT during the current financial year; and which such contractors have had their contracts terminated due to poor performance.
tabling member constituency	Dunfermline and West Fife
tabling member printed	Thomas Docherty
uin	201451
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2014 answer text <p>So far during the financial year 2014/15 PICT has employed <del class="ministerial">57</del><ins class="ministerial">61</ins> contractors, of whom <del class="ministerial">14</del><ins class="ministerial">15</ins> have been supporting services for Members. Further details cannot be provided without identifying individuals. Many are on short term contracts. None has had a contract terminated early.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 24/06/2014 10:19:35 question first ministerially corrected 26/06/2014 12:08:43 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso previous answer version 4754 answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	3962 label Biography information for Thomas Docherty

62969

registered interest
date	19/06/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Computer Software
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, what estimate he has made of the cost to date of introducing Office 365; what the final cost of introducing Office 365 is expected to be; and what feedback on the installation has been received so far from (a) hon. Members and (b) House staff.
tabling member constituency	Dunfermline and West Fife
tabling member printed	Thomas Docherty
uin	201450
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2014 answer text <p>The costs of the Microsoft 365 project to September 2014 are:</p><p>2013/14 £355,667<br> 2014/15 £144,333</p><p>The net savings made as a result of this project for 2014 to 2020 are:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong><br> Savings<br> (000s)</strong></p></td><td><p><strong><br> 13/14<br> (a)</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>14/15</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>15/16</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>16/17</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>17/18</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>18/19</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>19/20</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Revenue – Staff</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>191</p></td><td><p>191</p></td><td><p>191</p></td><td><p>191</p></td><td><p>191</p></td><td><p>191</p></td><td><p>1,146</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Revenue – Other</p></td><td><p>-33</p></td><td><p>22</p></td><td><p>232</p></td><td><p>282</p></td><td><p>293</p></td><td><p>292</p></td><td><p>295</p></td><td><p>1,381</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>-33</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>213</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>423</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>473</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>483</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>483</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>486</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2,527</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="9"><p>(a) The negative figure for 2013/14 reflects the start-up cost of the project.</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Office 2013 is the latest versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook. Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's cloud hosted version of these tools, together with some new tools accessible once a user's email box has been migrated to Microsoft 365.</p><p>The Microsoft 365 project has provided all users with the upgraded version of the Office 2013 suite. 90% of Members and their staff have upgraded their machines to Office 2013. As part of the pilot of Microsoft 365, 12 Members and their staff have had their mailboxes migrated to Microsoft 365. The remaining Members and their staff email boxes will be migrated to Microsoft 365 in June and July 2014. All House staff have completed both of these steps.</p><p>The general feedback from Members and their staff has been that the new product is similar to Office 2007, with some people liking the new features. We have received some negative feedback about the colour scheme of Outlook 2013 and about the new location of file/print/save buttons in Office 2013; similar feedback was received from House staff. In response PICT have produced guidance for staff on how to darken the colour scheme in Outlook and have been assured by Microsoft that they are working to address the interface issues in future upgrades.</p><p>There were some difficulties reported by people upgrading their Office 2013 remotely. This was due to the slow download of security updates for users with poor broadband connections.</p><p>The Members and their staff taking part in the pilots of Microsoft 365 have given positive feedback on the communications, support materials and service provided by PICT. As part of the migration Members have to reconnect their mobile devices to the new service and this has caused some difficulty for Blackberry users.</p><p>The migration of House staff to Microsoft 365 overlapped with unrelated network failures in January–February 2014, which affected perception of the product. Feedback from those migrated after the network was stabilised was much more positive. We have recently initiated 30 pilots of the wider suite of tools in Microsoft 365, and we have received positive feedback from these pilots, with users requesting to keep the new tools.</p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 24/06/2014 10:19:02 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	3962 label Biography information for Thomas Docherty

65745

registered interest
date	03/07/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Computer Software
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to his Answer of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 134W, on computer software, what feedback has been received on the mechanics of the implementation of Microsoft 365 from (a) members of the Administration Committee and (b) other hon. Members.
tabling member constituency	Dunfermline and West Fife
tabling member printed	Thomas Docherty
uin	203932
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2014 answer text <p>In May Parliamentary ICT (PICT) piloted migrating Members' mailboxes to Microsoft 365. In this Members' pilot, PICT migrated 82 mailboxes, including the mailboxes of 10 hon. Members, their staff and 12 members of the House of Lords. One of the hon. Members involved in this pilot is a Member of the Administration Committee. PICT requested feedback on the migrations in an anonymous survey. Four people in the pilot survey reported a problem with the migration of their email. Because the survey was anonymous, it is not possible to say who responded to the survey.</p><p>A paper on the implementation of Microsoft 365, which included feedback from the survey, was presented to the Administration Committee for their meeting on 16 June. A member of the Committee expressed serious concern that Office 365 was not well received by users. The Chair of the Committee is also aware of written complaints from three other hon. Members about recent changes.</p><p>PICT began the migrations for other hon. Members and their staff on 22 June. By 4 July over 1,800 mailboxes assigned to hon. Members and their staff had been migrated.</p><p>The most common cause of a call to the service desk after the mailbox migration has been to request help to follow the process for logging into the new mail box for the first time. The second most common problem relates to mobile devices. Parliamentary email stops working on mobile devices until they are reconfigured to point to the new server after the migration. BlackBerry devices need to be physically reconfigured by PICT, and this process can take over an hour. Furthermore, it takes longer for personal BlackBerry devices than for BlackBerries issued by PICT. In addition, new security features have made it difficult to synchronise some android devices with mailboxes.</p><p>For those having a problem with their email, it is of course disruptive, and PICT have dedicated specialists on hand to assist.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 08/07/2014 13:36:10 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	3962 label Biography information for Thomas Docherty

65746

registered interest
date	03/07/2014
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Computer Software
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to his Answer of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 134W, on computer software, how many calls the PICT Service Desk has received from hon. Members and their staff relating to problems resulting from the migration of their mailboxes to Microsoft 365.
tabling member constituency	Dunfermline and West Fife
tabling member printed	Thomas Docherty
uin	203933
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2014 answer text <p>Following a pilot, PICT began the migration of the mailboxes of hon. Members and their staff on 22 June. By 4 July over 1,800 mailboxes assigned to hon. Members and their staff had been migrated.</p><p>In the period from 22 June to 12:00 on 4 July, PICT logged 128 cases from hon. Members and their staff which were directly related to problems resulting from the migration of their mailboxes to Microsoft 365. 112 of those cases are now closed. During the same period, PICT logged 149 other cases from hon. Members and their staff requesting advice or help which were directly related to other aspects of the migrations to Microsoft 365.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross answering member printed John Thurso question first answered 08/07/2014 13:37:53 answering member 1399 label Biography information for Viscount Thurso
tabling member	3962 label Biography information for Thomas Docherty