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229348

registered interest
date	24/03/2015
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Research
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Written Statement of 20 March 2015, HCWS 438, on unpublished research reports commissioned by the last Administration, what the evidential basis is for the assertion that his Department commissions research better than did previous administrations.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Mr David Blunkett
uin	228868
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>Since 2010 the Department’s processes for commissioning research from external organisations have been strengthened. All research proposals must meet a set of criteria agreed with Ministers before they can go to tender. These are:</p><ol><li>Is the project endorsed by Ministers or senior officials or is the proposal something the Department needs to or is reasonably expected to do?</li><li>Does the project need to be commissioned now or can the work be deferred to a later date?</li><li>What is the justification for this work?</li><li>Is the project value for money and is the Department’s share of the cost reasonable?</li></ol><p> </p><p>Ministers scrutinise prospective research proposals at an early stage which allows them to influence the research proposal and ensure external commissions meet the Department’s priorities and provide value for money.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>Fully-developed research proposals are scrutinised by the Department’s Research Gateway panel – which comprises the Heads of Analytical Profession and senior representatives from Finance and Procurement. This panel reviews the proposed research methodologies, costs and procurement strategy to ensure these are necessary and the commission will deliver robust results at reasonable cost to the tax-payer.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>Project officers are challenged by the panel to justify the need for the work, the proposed cost and the expected outputs. The panel routinely encourages the use of innovative research methods to drive costs down. Opportunities for co-funding are routinely investigated before research contracts are procured.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>Following approval by the Research Gateway, research proposals are then sent to Ministers for final approval to proceed to procurement. This offers Ministers a further opportunity to ensure that external research commissions are meeting their criteria to deliver robust and cost-effective results.<br><br></p><p> </p><p>I would add that the last Administration spent £25.6 million on research projects that were commissioned but not published before May 2010, and many of those projects did not represent value for money for taxpayers - as evident by the fact that many were unpublished for years.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 26/03/2015 11:46:50 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	395 label Biography information for Lord Blunkett

90636

registered interest
date	04/09/2014
answering body	Department for Culture Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	BBC Trust
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, other than the members of the BBC Trust appointed to represent specific nations, how many of the existing Trust members have their main home outside London.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Mr David Blunkett
uin	208205
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2014 answer text <p>The BBC Trust have advised that other than the members of the BBC Trust appointed to represent specific nations, one other Trust member’s main home is outside London. Therefore, in total five of the eleven existing trustees have their main home outside London.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed Mr Edward Vaizey question first answered 11/09/2014 10:12:44 answering member 1580 label Biography information for Lord Vaizey of Didcot
tabling member	395 label Biography information for Lord Blunkett