These are responses to some of the Freedom of Information requests received during 2012.
1. How many of your staff have a contracted day off for Christmas shopping, Maundy Thursday, specific days contracted off outside of national Bank holidays?
No DFID employee has a contractual entitlement to time off for Christmas shopping.
We have interpreted the remainder of your request as relating to UK national bank and public holidays applying to DFID’s UK based staff. DFID has two UK Headquarters offices which are situated at 1 Palace Street, London, and Abercrombie House in East Kilbride. DFID also has a large network of overseas country offices where national holidays vary widely in accordance with local custom and practice. We do not keep a central record of all overseas national holidays.
DFID staff based in our London office have a contracted half day leave for Maundy Thursday. The total number of DFID employees based in our London office is publicly available, see the link below.
In addition to national bank and public holidays, DFID UK based employees have 2.5 days’ contracted privilege holidays. The total number of DFID employees based in the UK is also shown in the web link below.
2. How many email accounts do you have using the following domain(s)? @dfid.gov.uk or @dfid.gsi.gov.uk
3. If the Ministry has any contracts with Serco and/or G4S and if so, what financial amount these contracts total and the nature of work carried out?
Information on the joint DFID and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) contract with G4S Facility Services (India) Pvt Ltd to provide driver services to the British High Commission in New Delhi, India and DFID’s India office is available below.
DFID does not currently hold any other contracts with G4S. Nor do we have current contracts with Serco.
4. How many investigations has your department made into people requesting information from your department under the Freedom of Information Act?
DFID does not hold information relevant to your request. In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, all FOI requests received by DFID are handled in a way that is both applicant and motive blind.
5. How many websites/domain names does your department own or control on which it does not publish any information about itself?
DFID owns 7 domain names on which we do not publish any information about DFID. These are listed below along with information on the on-going registrations costs associated with them. DFID does not hold information on the year in which they were purchased.
6. The number of Equalities Impact Assessments your department completed in each of the last three years (2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12)
The number of Equality Impact Assessments or Equality Screenings completed by DFID in each year was as follows:
7. The amount spent by the Department on Christmas parties and Christmas entertainment in December 2011
DFID did not fund any official Christmas parties or entertainment in December 2011.
8. On how many occasions have the DFID used Private Investigators (or Private Detectives of Tracing Agent) to obtain information in the last 5 years.
DFID has no record of using private investigators, private detectives or tracing agents in the past 5 years.