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Correspondence

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 13 February 2006 to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Official Report, columns 1690–91W, on post office card accounts, when the three pilot schemes will be completed; and what plans he has to increase the number of people covered by these schemes. [56321]

Mr. Plaskitt: The pilots began on 13 February 2006 and will be concluded by mid-March. When they are completed we will evaluate the results and discuss the findings with the Post Office and other key stakeholders. I have no plans to increase the number of customers covered.

Departmental Correspondence

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many letters were received by (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies in (a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06 to date; and how many and what proportion of these letters were (i) answered within (A) 10, (B) 20, (C) 30 and (D) 40 working days, (ii) answered after 40 working days and (iii) not answered. [56456]

Mr. Plaskitt: The Department's correspondence targets are:

To respond to letters from MPs/peers to Ministers within 20 working days.

To respond to letters from members of the public to Ministers within 20 working days

To respond to letters from MPs/peers sent directly to agency chief executives on operational issues within 15 working days.

The information that is available on letters received and replied to is shown in the following tables.
Table 1: Receipt and response times of MPs letters to Ministers in calendar years

		Number of letters replied to during the year
	Received during the year	Replies	Within 20 days	Percentage within 20 days	21 to 40 days	Percentage within 21 to 40 days	Over 40 days	Percentage over 40 days
2003
DWP	12,157	12,031	8,931	74	2,696	22	404	3
Child Support Agency	240	227	199	88	27	12	1	0
Jobcentre Plus	977	866	736	85	116	13	14	2
The Appeals Service	13	13	13	100	0	0	0	0
The Pension Service	777	754	400	53	305	40	49	6
2004
DWP	13,320	13,463	11,536	86	1,497	11	430	3
Child Support Agency	491	482	445	92	30	6	7	1
Jobcentre Plus	879	943	880	93	58	6	5	1
The Appeals Service	37	36	32	89	2	6	2	6
The Pension Service	958	970	914	94	53	5	3	0
Disability and Carers Service	78	60	60	100	0	0	0	0
The Rent Service	6	6	2	33	4	67	0	0
2005
DWP	10,596	10,639	9,623	90	785	7	231	2
Child Support Agency	572	560	556	99	4	1	0	0
Jobcentre Plus	1,137	1,224	1,127	92	95	8	2	0
The Appeals Service	32	30	30	100	0	0	0	0
The Pension Service	701	683	669	98	13	2	1	0
Disability and Carers Service	454	445	445	100	0	0	0	0
The Rent Service	5	5	5	100	0	0	0	0

 
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Table 2: Receipt and response times of members of the public's letters to Ministers in calendar years

		Number of letters replied to during the year
	Received during the year	Replies	Within 20 days	Percentage within 20 days	21 to 40 days	Percentage within 21 to 40 days	Over 40 days	Percentage over 40 days
2003
DWP	17,289	16,479	13,583	82	1,487	9	1,409	9
Child Support Agency	1,126	981	840	86	93	9	48	5
Jobcentre Plus	3,447	2,413	395	16	475	20	1,543	64
The Appeals Service	20	19	17	89	1	5	1	5
The Pension Service	71	69	55	80	4	6	10	14
Disability and Carers Service	671	682	634	93	33	5	15	2
2004
DWP	19,371	18,671	16,904	90	233	1	1,534	8
Child Support Agency	1,183	972	743	76	157	16	72	7
Jobcentre Plus	5,176	4,873	4,830	99	43	1	0	0
The Appeals Service	34	37	33	89	4	11	0	0
The Pension Service	153	145	120	83	0	0	25	17
Disability and Carers Service	688	669	647	97	15	2	7	1
The Rent Service	4	4	4	100	0	0	0	0
2005
DWP	19,724	19,530	19,027	97	410	2	94	0
Child Support Agency	1,320	1,257	1,098	87	107	9	52	4
Jobcentre Plus	2,319	1,793	1,688	94	93	5	12	1
The Appeals Service	32	30	28	93	2	7	0	0
The Pension Service	750	731	665	91	62	8	4	1
Disability and Carers Service	684	707	703	99	3	0	1	0
The Rent Service	4	4	4	100	0	0	0	0

Table 3: Receipt and response times of MPs letters to chief executives in calendar years

	Number of letters replied to during the year
	Received	Replies	Within 15 days	Percentage within 15 days
2003
DWP	6,324	6,357	5,044	79
Child Support Agency	3,251	3,488	3,040	87
Jobcentre Plus	1,052	891	614	69
The Appeals Service	84	81	71	88
The Pension Service	1,157	1,102	549	50
Disability and Carers Service	554	567	564	99
2004
DWP	8,519	8,556	7,618	89
Child Support Agency	5,390	5,323	4,693	88
Jobcentre Plus	1,136	1,216	1,097	90
The Appeals Service	50	46	45	98
The Pension Service	1,340	1,366	1,217	89
Disability and Carers Service	451	454	453	100
The Rent Service	0	0	—	—
2005
DWP	8,068	8,047	7,843	97
Child Support Agency	5,367	5,332	5,275	99
Jobcentre Plus	1,062	1,136	1,024	90
The Appeals Service	60	64	61	95
The Pension Service	1,042	976	961	98
Disability and Carers Service	425	431	431	100
The Rent Service	0	0	—	—

Note:
Data for letters answered beyond the 15 the target are not available as most letters are answered within the target.





 
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Departmental IT Systems

Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent on IT systems in each year since 1997; what the purpose of each system is; what the outturn against planned expenditure of each system was; and what the (a) planned and (b) actual date of completion was of each system. [41315]

Mr. Timms: The Department for Work and Pensions was created in June 2001. The Department and its businesses currently have in excess of 100 individual projects which encompass information technology (IT)
 
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changes to a greater or lesser extent. The Department's major projects are those contained in its modernisation programme. For the most part, these projects embrace both IT and business change.

The information in the table lists the Department's current major programmes and projects that include significant IT change, with information on their purpose, due end date, planned expenditure, outturn and actual end date.

It should be noted that project details may alter as they pass through the project lifecycle and as the Department considers its wider plans as part of the normal spending review process.

Project/purpose	Due end date	Planned expenditure (£ million)	Outturn (£ million)(40)	Actual end date
Customer Management System
This system is an information gathering business process for working age Income Support Jobseeker's Allowance and Incapacity Benefit claims and changes of circumstances. It will allow information supplied by the customer to be gathered electronically by staff, improving efficiency and customer service. Staff will be able to check information supplied against that already held.	November 2005	250	250	Completed on time
New Tax Credits
This project supports the implementation of new tax credits by the Inland Revenue by putting a tax credits service in place for DWP customers (principally through Jobcentre Plus) and ensuring that necessary amendments are made to DWP benefits. These systems will be used to complete IS/JSA(IB) Migration by April 2007	April 2005	37	37	Completed on time
ISCS/JSA Modernisation project
Delivered initiatives that enhanced or augmented existing Working Age IT systems. These included the sharing of electronic data with Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance and personal details computer systems.	August 2004	14	14	Completed on time
Digital Office Infrastructure
DOI provided a modern IT infrastructure platform across the Department providing access for all staff to the internet and intranet and modern business software.	June 2004	726	726	Completed on time
Managing Core Systems Estate
To improve the ways in which our core legacy systems are managed.	March 2006	5	5	February 2005
Pensions Forecasting Programme
To establish the new Combined Pension Forecasting Service and enhance and replace the existing individual Pension Forecasting IT system	April 2005	43	43	Completed on time
Pension Credit
This project successfully introduced Pension Credit in October 2003. It delivered new IT functionality to existing DWP systems, and associated business products (eg training, staff guidance, customer notifications).	October 2004	297	297	Completed on time
Pensions Transformation Project
The programme will transform the Pension Service, bringing together business and IT change in ways that improve customer service and deliver efficiencies.	Wave 1a November 2005, waves 1b, 2a and 2b by March 2008; waves 3–5 by 2010	668	Project ongoing	Project ongoing
Customer Information System
This project will deliver a database of key citizen information to be shared across DWP. The database will complement information currently available in the Department's key customer information systems, ie Personal Details Computer System and Departmental Central Index, and become their replacement.	July 2007	75	Project ongoing	Project ongoing
Payment Modernisation Programme
The Payment Modernisation Programme aims to establish direct payment into a bank or building society account as the normal, method of payment for all customers. This includes those who wish to collect their money from the Post Office.	December 2005	366	366	June 2005
Resource Management
This programme will provide modernised HR, financial and procurement functions for DWP staff. It will introduce significant business process change, enabling departmental resources to be managed more effectively.	September 2006	176	Project ongoing	Project ongoing
Debt Management
The Debt Programme introduces a new organisational structure based on 10 Debt Centres and a Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) package to provide new Management Information Systems, combined with increased focus on the management and ultimately reduction of debt stock.	February 2006	105	Project ongoing	Project ongoing
Central Payments System (formerly part of Payment Modernisation)
New payment processing IT functionality is required to support the DWP to process payments for new entitlement management and financial scheduling systems.	September 2009	99	Project ongoing	Project ongoing
Benefits Process Replacement Programme (BPRP)2
The programme enables modernised benefit processing, effective fraud management and improved service to employers. It provides the strategic IT platform for the Department providing the foundation for future policy initiatives.	TBA	TBA	Project ongoing	Project ongoing

⁽⁴⁰⁾ Outturn figures show the final investment cost for the completed projects.
⁽⁴¹⁾ CSR: The Department had a Private Finance Initiative contract for the provision of IT services to the Child Support Agency worth approximately £456 million over 10 years. This contract commenced in August 2000 with a 10 year duration to August 2010. Under a general realignment of departmental contracts announced in August 2005, EDS will complete the system as currently specified, including correcting all agreed defects. The revised contract still has a completion date of August 2010 and the Department expects to save around £65 million (net present value basis) in Child Support information technology costs over the remaining period of the deal with EDS.
Notes:
1. The planned expenditure is;
for projects currently in progress, the latest forecast investment expenditure or
for completed projects the final approved investment expenditure.
2. BPRP: As part of the programme's governance it attended a gate on Monday 6 February 2006. At this gate a number of options for progressing the programme were presented. The gate reserved its decision and asked the programme to:
(i) Return to a gate in four months time having considered the impact of the Welfare Reform Green Paper; and
(ii) Continue its investment programme until the next gate by progressing work in areas common to all options presented.
Agreed forecast costs and completion date is dependant upon this decision.





 
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