NI BUREAUX – YOUR TAXES WELL SPENT?

The NI Executive operate a number of overseas offices – or bureaux – to represent the interests of NI in Washington, Brussels and since 2014/15, China.

The Bureau in Washington has the following description from the Executive office;
‘The Bureau works to cultivate and strengthen mutually beneficial links among economic, educational, cultural and community development interests in North America and Northern Ireland’.

The Washington office has a complement of 6 staff and has done since opening, whilst the Brussels office has had 5 staff from 2009-12, increasing to 7 staff in 2015/16.
The China office, which opened in 2014 has two staff.

BtP asked the Executive Office to outline how much each office spent on staffing, hospitality and travel each year since opening.

Despite implementing an austerity budget at home, the spending of the three overseas office (the Chinese office less so) could be seen as extravagant.

Since opening in 2007/8, the Washington office has spent over half a million pounds on hospitality – £686,000 to be exact.  This dwarfs the other two offices, with Brussels having spent £178,000 and China £4,000 on hospitality.

On travel, the Washington office far outspent its counterparts again, spending £737,000 since opening, compared to £231,000 for Brussels and £28,000 for the Chinese office.

The staffing for each office, bearing in mind the highest staff complement in any office itself is 7, are phenomenal.

Since opening, Washington has spent almost £3 million on staffing – £2.949m.  Surprisingly, Brussels tops the board with a staffing spend of over £3 million – £3.071m, and China has spent £265,000.

In total, the three NI Bureau offices have cost the taxpayer a whopping £8.149m since opening.

EXECUTIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE MIDDLE EAST: REVEALED

There has been alot of attention paid recently to the contacts between political parties of the Executive and Israeli delegations or officials in particular, so BtP decided to investigate and seek to uncover the relationship between parties in the Executive with both Isreali and Palestinian representatives and Governments.

We asked both the Executive Office, formerly OFMDFM and the Department of the Economy, formerly DETI, to release all Ministerial correspondence sent to or received from the Israeli and/or Palestine Embassy/Consulate or Government Department; dates and minutes of meetings with Israeli and/or Palestinian trade delegations, consular officials and government officials; and details of any trips to Israel and/or Palestine by any Minister or departmental official since 2007.

In relation to the Executive Office, the response was partially redacted because ‘releasing the information is likely to prejudice the UK’s interests.   For clarity, we chose both these Departments as there was a transition by Arlene Foster from DETI Minister to First Minister in the period.

Correspondence sent or received by/to any Israeli Embassy/Consulate or Government Department from the relevant Ministers:

February 2009 – Letter from the Deputy Head of Mission in the Embassy of Israel Re:

the Ambassador’s proposed visit to Belfast (04/02/09) and a letter of reply from the

First Minister and deputy First Ministers’ Private Secretaries (27/02/09)

18th December 2014 – Letter from the First Minister and deputy First Minister to

Israeli Ambassador in reply to his concerns regarding the removal of an historical

blue wall plaque in Belfast commemorating the birthplace of Chiam Herzog.

 

Dates of meetings with Israeli trade delegations, consular officials, Ambassadors and government officials:

7 May 2009 – the First Minister and deputy First Minister met the Israeli Ambassador,

HE Ron Prosser – as this was a diplomatic meeting no formal minute of the

discussion was recorded.

14 March 2011 – the First Minister and Junior Minister Robin Newton had lunch with

the Israeli Ambassador, HE Ron Prosser

20 February 2013 – Junior Ministers Jonathan Bell and Jennifer McCann met the

Israeli Ambassador, HE Daniel Taub – no minute of the meeting was recorded

12 June 2014 – Junior Ministers Jonathan Bell and Jennifer McCann met Deputy

Israeli Ambassador, Mr Etian Na’eh – no minute of the meeting was recorded

 

Details of trips to Israel by any Minister or departmental official:

15-18 February 2012 – Junior Minister Jonathan Bell visited Israel to attend the Equal

Employment Opportunities Commission (EU-EEOC) Twinning Project Closing

Conference.

 

Correspondence sent or received by/to any Palestinian Embassy/Consulate or

Government Department from the relevant Ministers:

Nil

 

Dates and minutes of meetings with Palestinian trade delegations, consular

officials, Ambassadors and government officials:

6 May 2014 – the deputy First Minister and Junior Minister Jonathan Bell met the

Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, HE Ahmed Abdelrazek – no minute of the

meeting was recorded

 

Details of any trips to Palestine by any Minister or departmental official:

Nil

 

31/07/08 – dFM and Junior Minister Donaldson met with the Israel-Palestine Joint

Committee on Culture of Peace – no minute of the meeting was recorded.

 

Contacts by the Department of the Economy (formerly DETI)

 

Correspondence sent or received by/to any Israeli Embassy/Consulate or

Government Department from the relevant Ministers and all correspondence sent or

received by/to any Palestinian Embassy/Consulate or Government Department from

the relevant Ministers.

April 2010 – Invitation to Arlene Foster MLA from the Ambassador of Israel (to the UK)

June 2009 – Letter from the Ambassador of Israel (to the UK) to Arlene Foster MLA

June 2009 – Letter from Arlene Foster MLA to the Ambassador of Israel (to the UK)

March 2016 – emails between the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, and

the Embassy of Israel, London

 

Dates and minutes of meetings with Israeli or Palestinian trade delegations,

consular officials, ambassadors and government officials.

Meetings took place on 7 May 2009 and 30 April 2013. No minutes are held in relation to

either of these meetings.

 

Details of any trips to Israel or Palestine by any Minister or departmental official

for any reason in the same timescale.

27 to 29 March 2012 – Three officials from the Department of Enterprise Trade and

Investment and the Department for Employment and Learning participated in a Business

Science & Technology fact finding trip to look particularly at University Business Links and Business Incubators.

PSNI’S HUGE GUN BILL REVEALED

Police forces around the UK do not have routinely armed officers, except the PSNI, Ministry of Defence Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.  All other forces have armed response units specifically equipped to deal with specific incidents.  Due to this, firearms are not a major spending priority for the ‘bobby on the beat’.

However, The Police Service of Northern Ireland has spent over £2 million on acquiring firearms in the last six years, BtP can reveal.

We asked the PSNI to outline spending on firearms and their spare parts, tasers and irritant sprays such as mace, since 2011.

In total, the police spent £2,671,631.28 on firearms during that period.

£90,355 was spent on tasers and accessories, with £235,223 spent on irritant sprays.
From 2015 until the present day, nothing has been spent on tasers or sprays, but there has been significant spending on firearms each year since 2011/12 as the data below outlines;

2011/12   £1,840,838
2012/13    £27,122
2013/14   £429,348.10
2014/15   £150,982.65
2015/16   £193,737.75
2016/17   £29,602.78

These costs do not include ammunition, but do include ‘associated spare parts’.

According to a statement to the House of Commons by the then Secretary of State in January 2014, the highest year of spending on firearms, 2013/14 saw 30 national security attacks in NI, over half of which, according to her statement, took place between October and December 2013.  Could this massive hike in firearms expenditure be a response to the upsurge in security-related incidents?

As of January 2016, the PSNI has a full time office complement of 6,872.  The total cost of firearms constitutes almost £400 per officer, though it is unlikely each officer is issued with a new firearm each financial year.

LEGAL HIGHS: WHAT IS BEING DONE?

 

After our summer break, we wanted to do a piece about an issue that is causing growing concern across the region – that of legal highs, also known as psychoactive substances.
These can come in the form of synthetic cannabis, powders or other substances of unknown ingredients and strength.
We asked the PSNI a range of questions about their efforts to address the sale and use of legal highs – and we also asked Royal Mail about their detention processes for legal highs at distribution centres where packets have been bought online.
We asked the police what work with external bodies they have undertaken to stop the sale of legal highs here, or being delivered to addresses here.
The PSNI told us that the are engaged with the NCA, DOJ, DHSSPS, PPS, Forensic Science Agency NI, Councils and the Attorney General.
As part of that engagement, the PSNI alongside local councils used the General Product Safety Regulations to seize items and effectively ban the sale of legal highs which resulted in the closure of all so called head shops which sell legal highs over the counter.
There are seven teams of 15 officers within the police which tackle Organised Crime, including those deemed to be involved in the production and sale of these substances.
Crucially, we also asked the police if they utilised human intelligence sources – informants – and if any of these were under the age of 18. The PSNI issued us with a Neither Confirm or Deny response – for a number of reasons such as national security and the integrity of ongoing investigations.
Royal Mail were asked to outline their detection processes for legal highs and how many items they have detected and seized in a certain timeframe.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Royal Mail does not knowingly carry any illegal items in its network. Where Royal Mail has any suspicion that illegal items are being sent through our system, we always work closely with the police and other authorities to assist their investigations and to prevent such activities from happening. For obvious reasons, we are not able to give any further details about our security measures as this would compromise our operations.”