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9 Jan 2006 : Column 71W—continued
Child Support Agency
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the latest compliance rate is for Child Support Agency cases; what the target is; and if he will make a statement. [21436]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 9 January 2006:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the latest compliance rate is for Child Support Agency cases; what the target is; and if he will make a statement.
Notes:
1.Case compliance is defined as the percentage of cases open at the end of any quarter for which any maintenance due via the collection service was received.
2.Cash compliance is defined as the percentage of maintenance due in any quarter which has been collected via the collection service.
Data Protection
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average time taken by his Department has been to respond to requests for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 since it came into force. [20354]
Mrs. McGuire: This information is not recorded centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. This is because requests for information are dealt with as part of normal business consistent with the obligations of the Data Protection Act.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to improve security of personal data held by his Department on its employees. [39316]
Mrs. McGuire: DWP has policies and systems in place to protect the security of payroll and other personal data relating to its staff. These are subject to managerial checks and regular internal and external auditing.
The Department is, however, urgently reviewing its current procedures in the light of the unauthorised disclosure of employee details in relation to apparently irregular tax credit claims.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of his Department's staff have had their personal details stolen for fraudulent tax credit applications. [39317]
Mrs. McGuire: The combined DWP and HMRC investigation is making good progress and I will be in a position to provide more details early next week.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the recent theft of data relating to staff in his Department for use in fraudulent tax credit applications. [39318]
Mrs. McGuire: The combined DWP and HMRC investigation is making good progress and I will be in a position to provide more details early next week.
Debt Manager System
Ian Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost is of the introduction of the new Debt Manager system in his Department. [33030]
Mr. Plaskitt: The introduction of the new IT system is part of the programme to modernise the recovery of overpaid benefits; in particular to bring about improvements in accounting controls to ensure that accounting irregularities, which have contributed to the qualification of DWP accounts by the C&AG in previous years, are removed from the system.
The total cost of introducing the new DWP Debt Manager system is £21.509 million: this includes all supplier costs (including hardware and software), the costs of Project staff and the Debt Management operational staff costs relating exclusively to the implementation of the new system.
Departmental Call Centres
Mr. Davey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of his Department's call centres
9 Jan 2006 : Column 73W
have contracted for voice training for their staff; how many staff in each of these call centres have undertaken voice training courses; what assessment he has made of the effects on (a) staff and (b) customers of voice training; and if he will make a statement. [16310]
Mrs. McGuire: DWP has 85 call centres of which 77 have arranged voice training for 4,691 staff during either their initial induction programme or subsequent telephony training. We are unable to breakdown the 4,691 staff that received voice training by site level as this information is not collated centrally by our Learning and Development teams and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Some centres evaluate the impact on staff 12 weeks after the training is received to check to what extent the learning has been understood and that staff are using the skills gained from the sessions.
Other areas within DWP where voice training has been undertaken have not evaluated the impact of the learning, but have assessed the quality of the sessions, which have been positively received.
The Pension Service will be piloting a national course for their 25 centres called 'Smart Talk' and will include modules on how to look after your voice.
No evaluation has been undertaken of the impact on customers of voice training.
Departmental Contracts
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total value is of (a) catering and (b) entertainment contracts let by his Department; and what value of such contracts has been let in each nation and region of the UK, including London. [37479]
Margaret Hodge: The Department for Work and Pensions has not let any (a) catering or (b) entertainment contracts.
Departmental Estate
Mr. Maples: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who is responsible for running his Department's Estate; what relevant specialist qualifications he or she holds; and what the details are of his or her career to date. [26327]
Mrs. McGuire: The DWP Estate is run through a 20 year PFI partnership deal competitively awarded by the then Department of Social Security to Trillium (now called Land Securities Trillium) on 1 April 1998. Following the creation of DWP in June 2001, the former Employment Service estate was transferred to Land Securities Trillium from 15 December 2003 under an expansion of the contract.
Officials' responsibility within the Department therefore is to manage this contractual agreement. The officers responsible are :
The Commercial Director has specialised in procurement and commercial matters in the Public Sector for nearly 20 years andis a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. Before moving to DWP, he was Head of Procurement for the Inland Revenue and has previously held commercial posts in the Home Office and HM Treasury (Central Unit on Procurement).
The Director of Estates has been in this role since 2000 and has specialised in estates and commercial matters in the Public Sector for the previous 10 years previously occupied Estate Management roles since 1991. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and the British Institute of Facilities Management.
Their details are also provided in the Civil Service Yearbook—the official online directory for all Government Departments.
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what (a) new build and (b) refurbishment of the Department's estate is underway in North Staffordshire; and what the (i) costs are and (ii) timetable is in each case. [37722]
Margaret Hodge: (a) The department has received planning permission for a new build in Hanley to replace the existing Jobcentre. We are in the process of seeking tenders and hope to start work on site in March 2006 with an anticipated opening of the office in May 2007. We will not be able to provide information on costs until the tenders have been assessed.
(b) With regards to refurbishment the department will be refurbishing three offices in North Staffs:
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