Utility and staffing costs at the Northern Ireland Assembly
Information Standards Freedom of Information Response
Our Ref: FoI 04 -19
22 February 2019
Freedom of Information Act 2000
I can confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission holds information relevant to your request of 23 January 2019. In your request you asked for the following information:
"1. How much money has been spent on electricity, heating, insurance, rates, telephone costs - with individual figures given for each of these?
2. The amount of money spent on wages of staff who work at Stormont since the collapse of power-sharing?
3. The figures for spending on staff wages to be broken down roughly by the roles of the staff (whatever way is most convenient for you)?
4. Can you provide the requested figures for the time Stormont collapsed in January 2017 up to the current date?
5. The figures to be given in quarterly amounts."
Clarification of your request was sought on 24th January 2019 as follows:
"1. 'Wages' – we will include wages and salaries, social security costs, and pension costs
2. 'staff who work at Stormont' – we interpret this to mean staff employed by the Assembly Commission (permanent and seconded) and agency staff.
This is so we can be consistent with the way information is published in the statutory accounts.
Also please confirm if you are content with information broken down by Business area / cost centre."
Your response of 24th January 2019 provided the following clarification:
"I can I accept your clarifications and am happy to proceed with the request on this basis."
The information that you have requested is attached at Appendices A and B.
Since October 2017, a formal process of temporary redeployment has been in place to seek to maintain the skills and experience of Commission staff during the period when the Assembly is not fully functioning. The costs attached include all staff employed by the Commission.
If you feel that the information we have provided does not meet your request fully, please contact this office as soon as possible. You have the right to request a formal review by the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission and if you wish to do so, please write to me at the above address.
If after such an internal review you are still unhappy with the response, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF who will undertake an independent review.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Information Standards and Data Protection Officer
Appendix A
Expenditure by Category
| Jan-Mar'17 | Apr-Jun'17 | Jul-Sept'17 | Oct-Dec'17 | Jan-Mar'18 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | £36,901.76 | £27,609.28 | £32,124.48 | £52,613.69 | £61,315.21 |
| Heating (Gas) | £28,581.43 | £12,009.01 | £10,270.32 | £24,591.53 | £39,830.85 |
| Insurance | £217.36 | £44,946.06 | £0.00 | £18.00 | £0.00 |
| Rates | £0.00 | £798,341.31 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Telephone | £23,407.46 | -£6,842.76 | £19,587.64 | £7,114.70 | £12,133.80 |
| Total Secreteriat - Wages and Salaries | £3,045,530.13 | £2,921,595.00 | £2,902,461.18 | £2,972,730.28 | £2,758,822.17 |
| Total Secreteriat - Social security costs | £309,235.23 | £294,927.36 | £294,264.13 | £301,224.49 | £290,366.40 |
| Total Secreteriat - Other pension costs | £683,196.06 | £655,258.68 | £654,447.82 | £673,135.40 | £641,287.64 |
| Total | £4,127,069.43 | £4,747,843.94 | £3,913,155.57 | £4,031,428.09 | £3,803,756.07 |
| Apr-Jun 18 | Jul-Sept'18 | Oct-Dec'18 | Jan'19 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | £28,170.79 | £50,354.42 | £54,206.01 | £25,109.21 |
| Heating (Gas) | £18,958.43 | £9,075.16 | £29,950.88 | £8,245.48 |
| Insurance | £44,574.52 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Rates | £811,975.64 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| Telephone | £7,399.12 | £8,936.77 | £8,936.50 | £4,511.34 |
| Total Secreteriat - Wages and Salaries | £2,835,418.77 | £2,867,233.97 | £2,933,801.33 | £938,980.40 |
| Total Secreteriat - Social security costs | £285,859.62 | £291,044.58 | £302,533.43 | £92,580.53 |
| Total Secreteriat - Other pension costs | £647,674.89 | £650,820.15 | £663,608.64 | £209,489.58 |
| Total | £4,680,031.78 | £3,877,465.05 | £3,993,036.79 | £1,278,916.54 |
| Total (Jan '17 - Jan '19) | |
|---|---|
| Electricity | £368,404.85 |
| Heating (Gas) | £181,513.09 |
| Insurance | £89,755.94 |
| Rates | £1,610,316.95 |
| Telephone | £85,184.57 |
| Total Secreteriat - Wages and Salaries | £24,176,573.23 |
| Total Secreteriat - Social security costs | £2,462,035.77 |
| Total Secreteriat - Other pension costs | £5,478,918.86 |
| Total | £34,452,703.26 |
Appendix B
Staffing Cost by Business Area
| Jan-Mar'17 | Apr-Jun'17 | Jul-Sept'17 | Oct-Dec'17 | Jan-Mar'18 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Movement in untaken holiday pay accrual | -£75,282.23 | -£64,097.73 | |||
| Commission & Chief Executive's Office | £76,126.75 | £72,965.55 | £74,413.17 | £78,412.47 | £75,425.27 |
| Speaker's Office | £48,908.50 | £48,998.08 | £51,849.70 | £53,702.19 | £51,755.64 |
| Politics Plus | £8,858.08 | £9,343.98 | £9,408.15 | £9,279.81 | £9,857.63 |
| Director's Office (Parliamentary Services) | £44,476.51 | £37,735.40 | £37,849.87 | £39,753.63 | £37,483.29 |
| Business Office | £82,433.10 | £73,698.04 | £72,971.85 | £77,863.68 | £70,717.34 |
| Business Committee | £9,504.42 | £9,343.98 | £9,408.15 | £9,279.81 | £9,857.63 |
| Clerks Office & EU Manager | £130,602.78 | £110,914.01 | £115,880.50 | £69,302.46 | £69,239.18 |
| Bills Office | £112,492.98 | £108,911.22 | £108,379.07 | £119,008.30 | £112,470.97 |
| Committees | £627,688.74 | £592,474.83 | £581,383.20 | £631,221.52 | £579,241.26 |
| Official Report (Hansard) | £334,629.69 | £294,356.81 | £275,357.29 | £289,475.76 | £275,137.73 |
| Outreach | £103,271.99 | £77,236.72 | £69,369.16 | £73,719.71 | £68,319.37 |
| Events | £40,892.78 | £36,193.47 | £30,197.02 | £34,303.05 | £30,231.70 |
| Communications | £114,935.83 | £103,899.78 | £111,891.52 | £121,600.19 | £111,897.15 |
| IS Office | £199,668.39 | £180,772.62 | £187,662.45 | £193,335.96 | £179,011.89 |
| Director's Office (Corporate Services) incl equality & Commissioneer for Standards | £75,431.88 | £109,374.36 | £99,866.91 | £73,840.36 | £69,458.45 |
| Finance Office | £202,131.70 | £186,983.38 | £195,173.22 | £186,289.39 | £197,972.19 |
| HR | £182,163.80 | £170,118.69 | £162,964.81 | £159,884.32 | £151,310.24 |
| Building Services | £142,279.79 | £104,453.16 | £106,693.78 | £118,171.92 | £110,125.96 |
| Office Resources | £24,519.82 | £28,643.22 | £28,885.11 | £30,075.32 | £27,491.11 |
| Support Services | £44,240.40 | £37,293.46 | £35,330.36 | £36,726.24 | £35,542.18 |
| Usher Services | £661,399.59 | £640,894.78 | £633,901.98 | £653,617.33 | £635,650.50 |
| Legal & Governance | £177,834.16 | £182,063.58 | £179,210.30 | £190,901.44 | £186,014.25 |
| Internal Audit | £54,614.84 | £54,762.03 | £54,201.83 | £56,226.21 | £54,548.46 |
| Information Standards | £23,942.05 | £23,604.54 | £23,765.66 | £24,625.12 | £23,712.32 |
| RAISE incl Library & Education | £521,797.77 | £509,811.02 | £527,676.92 | £546,224.33 | £516,256.96 |
| Procurement | £68,397.31 | £66,934.33 | £67,481.15 | £70,249.65 | £65,845.27 |
| TOTAL | £4,037,961.42 | £3,871,781.04 | £3,851,173.13 | £3,947,090.17 | £3,690,476.21 |
a
| Apr-Jun 18 | Jul-Sept'18 | Oct-Dec'18 | Jan'19 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Movement in untaken holiday pay accrual | ||||
| Commission & Chief Executive's Office | £76,375.27 | £78,100.22 | £79,947.26 | £24,354.57 |
| Speaker's Office | £52,516.65 | £53,233.69 | £54,250.95 | £17,962.66 |
| Politics Plus | £9,527.49 | £9,658.39 | £9,843.35 | £3,259.25 |
| Director's Office (Parliamentary Services) | £38,478.72 | £39,015.60 | £39,764.30 | £13,108.03 |
| Business Office | £73,974.96 | £75,749.30 | £78,254.16 | £22,564.93 |
| Business Committee | £9,527.49 | £9,527.49 | £9,527.49 | £3,706.01 |
| Clerks Office & EU Manager | £69,687.66 | £69,687.66 | £69,687.66 | £27,055.14 |
| Bills Office | £112,676.37 | £115,564.09 | £121,095.83 | £38,655.01 |
| Committees | £580,915.77 | £600,060.54 | £621,620.97 | £193,174.04 |
| Official Report (Hansard) | £279,301.31 | £288,102.81 | £297,189.96 | £94,307.30 |
| Outreach | £69,435.12 | £71,451.19 | £72,284.31 | £15,121.59 |
| Events | £33,552.44 | £32,674.12 | £34,113.57 | £12,101.78 |
| Communications | £103,225.87 | £101,999.60 | £104,181.98 | £33,509.30 |
| IS Office | £182,683.22 | £176,769.99 | £178,794.05 | £56,703.41 |
| Director's Office (Corporate Services) incl equality & Commissioneer for Standards | £70,302.06 | £71,323.74 | £72,759.37 | £21,522.34 |
| Finance Office | £193,564.37 | £191,821.15 | £186,389.45 | £58,951.07 |
| HR | £150,736.51 | £147,772.90 | £158,490.49 | £50,710.40 |
| Building Services | £110,802.04 | £116,071.70 | £118,761.90 | £38,929.29 |
| Office Resources | £27,145.62 | £26,059.75 | £26,296.01 | £8,131.12 |
| Support Services | £35,782.32 | £36,292.88 | £37,012.93 | £12,165.59 |
| Usher Services | £645,965.19 | £656,135.64 | £656,731.38 | £216,627.94 |
| Legal & Governance | £189,232.22 | £186,753.45 | £188,628.79 | £56,586.43 |
| Internal Audit | £57,464.86 | £51,420.82 | £67,557.61 | £19,187.32 |
| Information Standards | £24,069.90 | £24,069.90 | £24,069.90 | £9,354.47 |
| RAISE incl Library & Education | £506,945.76 | £513,124.41 | £531,966.03 | £176,486.59 |
| Procurement | £65,064.09 | £66,657.67 | £60,723.70 | £16,814.93 |
| TOTAL | £3,768,953.28 | £3,809,098.70 | £3,899,943.40 | £1,241,050.51 |
a
| Total (Jan '17 - Jan '19) | |
|---|---|
| Movement in untaken holiday pay accrual | -£139,379.96 |
| Commission & Chief Executive's Office | £636,120.53 |
| Speaker's Office | £433,178.06 |
| Politics Plus | £79,036.13 |
| Director's Office (Parliamentary Services) | £327,665.35 |
| Business Office | £628,227.36 |
| Business Committee | £79,682.47 |
| Clerks Office & EU Manager | £732,057.05 |
| Bills Office | £949,253.84 |
| Committees | £5,007,780.87 |
| Official Report (Hansard) | £2,427,858.66 |
| Outreach | £620,209.16 |
| Events | £284,259.93 |
| Communications | £907,141.22 |
| IS Office | £1,535,401.98 |
| Director's Office (Corporate Services) incl equality & Commissioneer for Standards | £663,879.47 |
| Finance Office | £1,599,275.92 |
| HR | £1,334,152.16 |
| Building Services | £966,289.54 |
| Office Resources | £227,247.08 |
| Support Services | £310,386.36 |
| Usher Services | £5,400,924.33 |
| Legal & Governance | £1,537,224.62 |
| Internal Audit | £469,983.98 |
| Information Standards | £201,213.86 |
| RAISE incl Library & Education | £4,350,289.79 |
| Procurement | £548,168.10 |
| TOTAL | £32,117,527.86 |
