05 January 2007
Well done to all of you who took part – your comprehensive knowledge of the news is impressive. Particular congratulations to our winner Sue Alliott at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, who wins our prize of a mixed case of wine. If you were foxed or fazed by our questions, don't forget that this website is the internet magazine of the public sector, and is packed with useful information. So this year, make it your New Year resolution to keep up to date!
1 Which Whitehall department axed 15 senior staff after receiving a critical Departmental Capability Review?
a) Constitutional Affairs
b) Education & Skills
c) Home Office
d) Work & Pensions
2 How many people have occupied the post of NHS chief executive since Christmas 2005?
a) Three
b) Four
c) Five
d) Six
3 How much did the national minimum wage rise to?
a) £5.05 per hour
b) £5.35 per hour
c) £5.70 per hour
d) £6.05 per hour
4 How many tickets for parking and traffic violations were issued to drivers in London in the year to April 2006?
a) 500,000
b) 1 million
c) 3 million
d) 6 million
5 Which public body spent more than £12,000 on widescreen TVs for its buildings?
a) Scottish Executive
b) Welsh Assembly
c) House of Commons
d) Greater London Authority
6 Conservative Party leader David Cameron was urged to look to Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee for inspiration, rather than Winston Churchill, by:
a) Greg Clark
b) Boris Johnson
c) Norman Tebbit
d) Charles Saatchi
7 Two stolen Foreign & Commonwealth Office mobile phones, eventually traced to the South Pacific, had run up a bill of…?
a) £20,420
b) £80,560
c) £100,840
d) £594,000
8 Who will become chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights when it comes into existence in the autumn of 2007?
a) Trevor Phillips
b) Margaret Hodge
c) Eleanor Laing
d) Jenny Watson
9 According to the Office for National Statistics, how many councils might have flawed population statistics?
a) 10%
b) 20%
c) 30%
d) 40%
10 London School of Economics' researchers found that the average expense claim per MP's vote in Parliament was £556. How much was Tony Blair's?
a) £1,360
b) £2,360
c) £3,360
d) £4,360
11 Following a National Audit Office report on the clarity of key leaflets from government departments, how did the chair of the Public Accounts Committee describe many of those from the Department for Work and Pensions?
a) accessible
b) baffling
c) comprehensible
d) gobbledegook
12 This year, what was the average increase in council tax in England?
a) 2%
b) 4.5%
c) 8%
d) 12%
13 Who was named as the first National School Sport Champion?
a) John Prescott
b) Dame Kelly Holmes
c) Sir Menzies Campbell
d) Zara Phillips
14 A ban on smoking in public places is due to come into force on April 30 2007, in:
a) England
b) Northern Ireland
c) Scotland
d) Wales
15 Which public body spent £150,000 on bicycles for its staff?
a) Greater London Assembly
b) Buckingham Palace
c) Cambridge City Council
d) Highland Council
16 What made the Banbury demonstrators cross?
a) Hobby horses were banned from the town centre
b) The Christmas pantomine was abandoned due to a lack of funds
c) Changes to services at Horton Hospital in Banbury
d) The local annual rocking-horse festival was cancelled
17 According to official figures, how much more, on average, do Scottish councils spend annually on school pupils than English councils?
a) £800
b) £1,600
c) £2,400
d) £3,200
18 How many of the 570 NHS organisations that were inspected by the Healthcare Commission in 2006 were rated 'good' or 'excellent'?
a) 52
b) 107
c) 254
d) 381
19 Home Office minister Liam Byrne presented a report to Parliament that estimated the 'likely cost' of identity cards over ten years at…?
a) £2bn
b) £4.7bn
c) £5.4bn
d) £6.2bn
20 According to a TUC report, which story was either untrue or a misinterpretation of health and safety regulations?
a) Killer conkers
b) Helmet-wearing trapeze artists
c) Pole-less fire stations
d) All of the above
21 Which council is considering charging residents with high-emission cars £750 for a parking permit?
a) Wolverhampton City Council
b) London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
c) City of York Council
d) Edinburgh City Council
22 Who forgot to pay a council tax bill of £3,830.52 on their government flat at Admiralty House in London?
a) Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
b) Former local government minister Nick Raynsford
c) Ruth Kelly, the current local government secretary
d) Shadow local government secretary Caroline Spelman
23 Which £67m building that opened in March soon needed buckets to catch rain from its leaking roof?
a) Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood
b) The National Assembly for Wales' home, the Senedd
c) City Hall, London
d) Wembley Stadium
24 Since the 2012 Olympic Games were awarded to London in July 2005, the estimated cost has risen by:
The answer was 40% to £3.3bn but as a typographical error displaced the figures, this question has been discounted from the results.
25 Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions in February indicated that at the current rate, it would take until which year to clear the backlog of 'new scheme' cases at the Child Support Agency?
a) 2034
b) 2044
c) 2054
d) 2064
PFjan2007
