Current service provision
6. At the end of March 2007, PICT employed (or contracted
with third parties for the services of) 242 full time equivalent
people.[1] As with other
parts of the parliamentary service, PICT does not have a fixed
staff complement at any given time and overall staff costs are
managed through budget controls. Because of the need for scarce
specialist skills and the nature of the employment market in ICT,
53 of these people were engaged on short-term contracts for service
or consultancy, many through third parties. All of the staff directly
employed by PICT are based at Westminster. Very few staff are
dedicated specifically to Members and their staff, but the majority
of service desk calls are received from these customer groups.
7. PICT is responsible for providing a service to
a variety of client groups, of which Members of the Commons and
their staff are only one. PICT also provides a service to Members
of the House of Lords and their staff, to Departments of both
Houses, and, through the Internet and the structures underpinning
it, to the public. The client groups are by no means completely
separate: much of the work done by House of Commons staff using
ICT is carried out on behalf of Members, and while the direct
customers of systems such as the security pass system, division
bells and payroll are Departments of the House, Members appreciate
and benefit from these systems as well.
8. PICT draws its funding from a number of budgets:
- the main PICT budget. This
was approximately £20.7 million resource in 2006-07,[2]
and £1.2 million capital. Approximately 80% (£15 million)
was paid from the House of Commons Administration Estimate, the
other 20% being funded by the House of Lords;
- the House of Commons Members' Estimate for spending
on Members' IT, including equipment, the Commons share of the
running costs of the Virtual Private Network (VPN) and of mobile
computing, and the cost of temporary staff dedicated to supporting
mobile computing for Members;
- the House of Lords budget for IT capital and
Peers' expenditure; and
- project budgets for agreed and mainly shared
project expenditure, such as the Internet project and an exploratory
project looking at Electronic Document and Records Management.
9. Any increase in funding for PICT from the House
of Commons Administration Estimate to improve services for Members
and their staff would require agreement from the Finance &
Services Committee and the House of Commons Commission, and (unless
the funding was redistributed from other Departments) from the
House itself. Any increase in the provision from the Members'
Estimate would normally be subject to a review by the Senior Salaries
Review Body and would also have to be agreed by the House.
10. The main PICT budget from the Administration
Estimate enables the provision of services including servers and
networking (but not local networking at a constituency level),
telephony within the Parliamentary Estate, licences and support
for common and specialist parliamentary applications, and all
time and services provided by PICT staff, such as customer assistance.
More than 25% of the budget is for spending related to the specialist
applications in use by the two Houses, such as the Parliamentary
Information Management System (PIMS).
11. Members' ICT equipment both at Westminster and
in the constituency is provided from a separate budget, the Members'
Estimate, as an allowance. Each Member is entitled to a total
of up to five desktop and laptop computers and up to two printers.
Members can if they wish purchase additional equipment from the
Parliamentary catalogue, using their own money or the Incidental
Expenditure Provision (IEP), a separate cash-limited allowance.
The equipment is provided and supported via a contract, currently
with Dell, and this contract is managed by PICT. Broadband connections
in Members' homes and offices are provided via a separate contract,
with THUS/Demon, paid for from the Members' Estimate budget. Members
must pay themselves for the telephone line needed to access this
service, using the IEP if they wish. As of July 2006, pocket mobile
computing devices have also been available for Members to buy
from the Parliamentary catalogue.
12. Only equipment provided through the Parliamentary
catalogue and only the centrally specified broadband provision
may be used to connect directly to the Parliamentary Network.
13. During the period of dissolution before a general
election, Members' Parliamentary Network accounts and e-mail access
have historically been suspended, although a facility to allow
Members to redirect their e-mails has been offered. Members have
lost access to telephones at Westminster, and voicemail storage
has been withdrawn. In 2005, Members remained able to use equipment
in their constituency for ongoing casework, and Internet access
via broadband remained available. No equipment provided centrally
or paid for using the IEP may be used for party political purposes
at any time.
14. We are responsible for considering the services
provided for and by the House. Allowances, including the provision
of ICT equipment to Members, are overseen by an Advisory Panel
on Members' Allowances and by the Members' Estimate Committee.
However, we (and the Information Committee before us) have generally
found that it is impossible sensibly to consider the provision
of ICT services without making reference also to the equipment
being provided. Our responsibilities are interlinked. We aim to
be clear in this Report where we make recommendations with implications
for services and equipment provided from the Members' Estimate.
15. PICT does not yet have a clearly defined and
communicated strategy for delivering ICT services to Members.
There is a risk that without clear strategic direction, services
for Members will not be given the priority they deserve. We aim
in this Report to help provide that direction.
Previous work
16. Until relatively recently, Members were responsible
for choosing and buying their own ICT equipment. It was only with
the development of a central Parliamentary Network, the stability
of which depends on the consistency and reliability of the systems
connected to it, that equipment procurement has been centralised
and standardised. Longer-serving Members' desire to maintain the
wide choice of ICT equipment they enjoyed in the recent past has
been at odds with this development. As Members have come to rely
on networked systems, they have had reluctantly to restrict this
flexibility.
17. In 1993, the Information Committee did "not
recommend the central provision of equipment, but consider[ed]
that a list of 'registered' suppliers should be available to Members
on request".[3] By
1998, they recommended that "the time [was] not yet right
for central provision", but agreed to the introduction of
an approved list of equipment which Members could purchase centrally
and recommended that the issue be reviewed in the next Parliament.[4]
However, the issue reached a crisis point sooner than the Committee
had anticipated. In 2000, "in the light of a dramatic increase
in the use of IT by Members" and noting "the prospect
of an erosion of the value" of the Parliamentary Network
and of the support that could be provided, the Information Committee
recommended "that central provision of IT hardware and software
for Members, together with a maintenance and support service in
Westminster and in the constituency, be introduced at the earliest
opportunity".[5]
18. This system of central provision was introduced
following the general election in 2001 and the agreement of the
House in July of that year that "specific financial provisions
should be made for the supply and maintenance of a standard package
of information technology equipment and services for each Member
to be used exclusively in discharging their duties as Members".[6]
It is worth noting that the "standard package" to which
the House agreed in 2001 included services as well as equipment.
While the package of equipment has always been clearly defined,
the package of services has not.
19. The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) recommended
the central provision and funding of Members' IT equipment as
early as 1992.[7] More
recently, in 2004, the SSRB recommended that "the level and
range of IT support offered to constituency offices should be
improved to a level comparable with that offered on the Parliamentary
Estate".[8] This recommendation
has already had a significant impact on Members' expectations
of the ICT services they should receive. One of the aims of this
Report is to suggest how this challenging goal might best be approached.
It is indisputably the case that the level and range of IT support
in the constituency continues to fall far short of that offered
at Westminster.
1 Excluding the telephone operator bureau and telecoms
engineers, but including staff working on the project to redevelop
the parliamentary website. Information provided by PICT Back
2
Including £2.6 million for non-cash items (depreciation and
staff pensions) Back
3
The Provision of Members' Information Technology Equipment, Software
and Services, First Report from the Information Committee, Session
1992-93, HC 737, para 34 Back
4
The Supply of Members' Information Technology Equipment, Software
and Associated Services, First Report from the Information Committee,
Session 1998-99, HC 74, paras 49, 52 and 59 Back
5
Information Technology provision for Members, Second Report
from the Information Committee, Session 1999-2000, HC 758, paras
15, 29 and 33 Back
6
Votes and Proceedings 5 July 2001 Back
7
Top Salaries Review Body, Report No. 32, Cm 1943, Chapter 4. Back
8
Review Body on Senior Salaries, Report No. 57, Cm 6354-I, p 30 Back
