Select Committee on Administration Written Evidence


Memoranda submitted by Members' staff (October 2006, unless otherwise stated)

MARION ANDERSON (OFFICE OF MR JIM MURPHY MP)

  1.  As office Manager in the East Renfrewshire Constituency I am pleased with the way in which the IT equipment was provided this year.

  2.  My only comment is that there should be a greater deal of flexibility in the range of equipment provided ie. I would have liked a second laptop instead of a desk model.

MICHELE DE ANGELI (OFFICE OF MR RICHARD BENYON MP)

(a)—Best Practice in the world at large

  1.  I do not have personal experience of the provision of ICT in large businesses but am able to comment on the ability of members of my family who work for global companies employing many more staff than Parliament but do not experience the type of issues faced by MP's and their staff. These companies enable their staff to work remotely from almost any location at speeds unrecognisable to anything proved by PICT. I would recommend the Administration Committee request large companies share their ICT knowledge with PICT.

(b)—Departmental structure and goals

  2.  My experience of PICT is there are definitely two levels of service. I work in the constituency for most of the week, but spend at least one day a week in the House. The difference in service and performance of the network provided by PICT is staggering. There seems to be a general "not important" attitude to constituency problems, where problems experienced in the House are dealt with almost immediately.

(c)—IT stability v Flexibility

  3.  There has been no balance struck at all. There is no flexibility in what is provided or when. There is no understanding of the needs of the MP or his staff and how they need to arrange their ICT provision. ie The provision of equipment is maximum of four PC's, two printers and a laptop. However, no networking is included at all. How you are meant to use two of the PCs without a printer is "not my problem" . . . "you can get someone in to network your machines if you like, but we don't do that". In addition, one of the printers provided is not network compatible so you cannot scan to any PC except the one it is primarily connected to. It has not been thought through from a business point of view.

(d)—Constituency provision

  4.  The constituency provision is considered, second class by PICT. Having our computers delivered on 2 June 2005 (six weeks after the MP was elected), it then took until the 15 July for the engineer to come and install them, at the same time breaking the printer and not networking them (see c). The system was only working fully in August—a full three months after the MP was elected. All this time we were without the means to do the job properly and despite a number of emails and phone calls, there seemed to be no recognition of the difficulties this caused. By contrast the PC was delivered and installed in the House on the same day just a short time after the election.

  5.  In addition an extra printer that was ordered for the constituency also took more than a month to arrive.

  6.  The VPN issue was highlighted by me to PICT within one month of receiving the equipment (Case 421660), in August 2005. This was never resolved and I was not kept updated. It was an email from me dated 31 March 2006 which instigated the "cached mode" change which has speeded up the VPN, but there is still an underlying problem which I believe is connected to the broadband speed. We did not get the fastest broadband at install, because given a choice we went for the middle option to save taxpayers money. I believe PICT should be changing every constituency that uses VPN to the fastest and biggest broadband line to speed up the transfer which is still slow particularly when there are a number of users on the system (ie Fridays). It is still unstable and drops frequently. There is also an issue to be discussed about why it took from summer 2005 to April 2006 to discover that there should have been a tick in the cached mode box and this would have saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in wasted time whilst constituency staff all over the UK tied to work but had to wait minutes between opening emails and doing anything. Not to mention the money PICT spent visiting constituencies and never sorting out the problem.

  7.  There is a bigger question to ask of PICT. Why did they not acknowledge my email of 31 March but act on it and then roll out the "cached mode" update claiming they had solved the problem? Whilst I am not looking for any recognition, I am concerned that there has been an attempt to cover up their inability to help the problem. If staff in PICT had not found this basic set up error, despite the time and money they spent on trying to solve the problem, questions must be asked of the quality of their technicians and management and their ability to give value for money.

  8.  VPN has a very long way to go before it reaches the network speeds and stability of the Parliamentary Estate.

  9.  PICT also needs to address constituency in house networking to make for a better working system.

(e)—Customer service

  10.  IT support needs improving. Whilst the wait for the call centre staff is not too bad, if you need to speak to a technician who will call you back, you can wait for hours. This is not acceptable when you are trying to work. An example is; I was fixing broadband and VPN in the MPs London flat and was told, according to the instructions, that I needed an engineer to talk me through it. I waited 2.5 hours for someone to call me. I was not in a position to do other work and wasted all this time. In the end I did it myself—correctly with help of the same IT company that had identified the cached mode problem for me. There needs to be more understanding of the working practices of MPs and their staff and address the provision accordingly.

(f)—New Equipment roll-out

  11.  Please see my answer to (d) regarding my experiences in 2005. Lessons need to be learnt.

  12.  PICT are aware of the number of MPs in the House of Commons even if they do not know who they will be before a General Election. It is not rocket science to have a number of PC's already built and ready to give out the day after election and book technicians in advance to cover areas. The locations could have been fitted in once the General Election results were known. It could all have been achieved by the 31 May. In reality what happened was that all the machines were built after Polling day and therefore took a long time to arrive at their destinations and, only once they had arrived, were technicians booked.

  13.  Again as said above, networking for the constituencies should be included as a standard part of the install

(g)—Future equipment and service need

  14.  There should be wireless networking throughout the Parliamentary Estate to allow for the use of Parliamentary laptops to be used in any area but more importantly the constituency offices should be networked in house and the VPN issue should be resolved.

Notes:

  1.  The technical company which identified the cached mode issue for me is called Prognosys, and whilst small, would be willing to consult with PICT on VPN, which is a large part of their business.

  2.  I have email evidence for all the examples mentioned above which is available on request.

PENNY BARBER (PARLIAMENTARY WATERWAYS GROUP)

  1.  I work very part time—the odd hour or two totalling a maximum of a day a week. I use the system remotely via citrix.

  2.  It's a nightmare and has got worse over the last couple of years. Slow to access, slow to use. Attachments are the biggest problem—I can't send them or save them to my computer, however long I wait. I've discussed this with the help desk several times and they say that's just how it is.

  3.  What really annoys me is that when I bought a new lap top two years ago, I consulted with the help desk. I was told broadband access didn't work remotely. I've discussed this more recently and they told me it does work now but I can only have it if I buy a new computer but via you. I can't afford to do this and it does seem a waste. This was quite an expensive machine and works well. I really don't see why we can't come to some arrangement with the licence.

  4.  On the plus side, the help desk is very good at answering the phone and calling back and with queries.

SUSAN BAYFORD (OFFICE OF MR MARK HOBAN MP)

  Just to let you know that I have always had excellent support from the PICT staff.

DIANA BLAIR (OFFICE OF MR HUGO SWIRE MP)

  Just recently we seem to have had endless interruptions to the supply of both the intranet and voicemail and I was wondering whether something could be done to prevent this.

SHIRLEY BUCKLEY (OFFICE OF MR MICHAEL MEACHER MP)

  I am reasonably happy with the service I receive through the helpline for instance (though I wish the hours of service were a bit longer) but hate the new equipment recently installed. I don't even use the Dell printer it's that slow, we have installed our own HP printer instead. I think the VPN service has improved over the last few months, but I still have problems accessing the service, particularly at peak times.

PETER CARRINGTON-SMITH (OFFICE OF MR CLIVE BETTS MP)

Notes on problems with PDVN/PICT

  1.  In the past there have been problems reading emails with attachments over 256k. The problem was that it took a very long time to retrieve the email/file from the server. To a degree this has improved with smaller files but now happens on a regular basis with attachments around the 1 megabyte mark.

  2.  One major difficulty we have is that in the constituency office we have five computers—three running Windows XP and two running Windows 98SE. Two of the computers are what we call House of Commons machines while the other three are stand alone machines—all have broadband internet connections.

  3.  The problem is that the three stand alone machines cannot access PDVN and we have to log onto one of the HOC machines to read emails and download attachments and information which under ideal circumstances we would simply copy and paste etc. As more of our work is becoming email based it can be quite tedious to have to wait until a machine is free to send an email with the time taken for one user logging off and the other logging on—this is not an efficient use of our time!

  4.  Under ideal circumstances, the MP should be able to log onto PDVN and have access to all the cases that his/her staff are dealing with. To that end, we would like to use a system such as CFL's Caseworker on all the machines especially now that it appears Caseworker has the ability to "Network" in a fashion on the "S" drive, but this cannot happen until all our computers have access to PDVN.

  5.  We realise that there has to be security and a level of control over the number of users accessing the Parliamentary domain but has anyone calculated what it would cost to give each MP access to PDVN for a further two existing machines—approx. 1,300 in all?

MALCOLM CLARKE (OFFICE OF BARBARA KEELEY MP)

  One problem which we feel needs addressing is that PICT do not give advice on or support networking in Constituency offices. This is a major deficiency in the services they offer.

PHIL COLE (OFFICE OF CAROLINE FLINT MP)

  1.  First, the support from PICT is great.

  2.  Second, the Dell hardware supplied in the latest round is below par.

  3.  In particular, the Dell laser printers are very slow. If you are printing letter after letter, as many staff are, the delay while it thinks about printing is very frustrating.

  4.  Also, whoever agreed a contract which required that we order only Dell printer cartridges did no one any favours. Why should we have printers which for their lifetime have to have toner from one manufacturer only. This is anti-competitive and ridiculous. You may find, as we did, that by simply opening your printer to identify what the cartridge is, triggers the warning "32 unsupported printer cartridge" followed by the printer refusing to print. This is not acceptable.

  5.  I don't believe parliament can be receiving value for money from this contract, unless the Dell toner is supplied at substantially below their market price.

SARAH COLEBY (OFFICE OF ANNE MILTON MP)

  1.  Most of the services are great and I have few comments.

  2.  Just one specific area where I consider there is room for improvement:

  3.  While I acknowledge that PICT has a massive task to manage the IT systems for the whole Parliamentary estate and (in cases like mine, where I often work offsite) beyond, there are now well over 100 MPs who use the CMITS database system for constituency work. Every time PICT make a change to their system, this can have a knock-on effect on CMITS. One of those using CMITS informs ITOS (the company that produced and maintains CMITS) that something peculiar is happening, they then have to contact PICT to find out what they have done, produce a patch and email it to all users to install.

  4.  Surely it cannot be beyond PICT to set in place a protocol that they send a courtesy email to ITOS each time they make a change on the system, so that they can in turn pre-empt any problems.

  5.  As an end user of CMITS, all day Monday to Friday, I find it extremely frustrating—the problems that result often mean you have to close the programme and sometimes the whole computer and then reboot. This may happen several times in succession and is a seriously irritating interruption.

  6.  If PICT could introduce such a protocol, it would be really helpful.

MANDY COLLIS (OFFICE OF MR MIKE HANCOCK MP)

  I am very happy with the services provided.

ALISON CORNELL (OFFICE OF LAURA MOFFATT MP) (NOVEMBER 2006)

  1.  I would simply say that I have found the PICT team extremely helpful on almost all occasions when I have requested their help. I think they probably take a lot of flack for people's frustration when computers fail but my advice is always—if you don't know what's wrong, just ring 2001, don't fiddle because you often make it worse, you don't learn how to put it right simply, and the inevitable final call is in frustration and often takes longer.

  2.  My husband works for HMRC and I can assure you that their service is nothing like as user friendly.

ALEXANDER DAVIES (OFFICE OF MR DAN ROGERSON MP)

  One initial thought is that the space given for our Outlook (Exchange) mailboxes is far too small. I am constantly receiving notices that my mailbox is over its size limit, and archiving material to remedy the problem. I cannot, at present, however keep even 14 days' worth of material on the server, so that it is available wherever I log in on the Estate.

ALISTAIR DOUGLAS (OFFICE OF MR DOMINIC GRIEVE MP)

  1.  One slightly irritable thing is the fact that the inbox becomes very full very quickly. Surely extra storage can be provided for the inbox. (I am aware that the emails can be stored elsewhere).

  2.  Furthermore I used to use Mozilla firefox as my default internet browser but for reasons unbeknown to me that is no longer possible. It is a better web browser than internet explorer and it would be good if we were able to utilise it.

  3.  Finally I understand that the remote access system is not always as good as it could be.

IONE DOUGLAS (OFFICE OF DR LIAM FOX MP)

  The only problem with 2001 is the time it takes to get through. It is hard to imagine that all their "available specialists" being busy at 8.30 in the morning or 6.30 at night. The message is quite infuriating and worthy of BT at its worst. If you are going to have specialists, it might be sensible to have a few more so that they had sufficient time to spend on an enquiry. Not everyone is quite as quick as they are at understanding computer problems. This is not, I hasten to say, universal as the majority of the specialists are most efficient and very patient.

ALAN EVANS (OFFICE OF SARAH MCCARTHY-FRY MP)

  I think, on the whole, the service is pretty good. Its a bit annoying sometimes when you can't access the Intranet—It's been off most of this week. However the alternative usually meets my needs, though not absolutely.

DEBBIE FENN (OFFICE OF JIM FITZPATRICK MP)

  1.  The services provided by the House are very helpful.

  2.  At present, many of us receive Gallery News email service, of which you may have heard. It is a great service that provides reports and updates throughout the day from Lobby Correspondent, Rob Gibson. One of its most important features is its interactive aspect. Rob puts out his own reports and also press releases, statements and comments from MPs and organisations. We can then give our view. This provides a very useful forum that runs throughout the day. I wondered if Gallery News might be something the House would consider supporting in an official capacity, to ensure the future of this valuable service.

JANE GIBSON (OFFICE OF MR PHILIP DUNNE MP)

  On the whole I am happy with the services provided by PICT—two comments though:

    (a)  It would be helpful if there were clearer guidelines on what is or is not best practice. Many times I have been told by one of the helpdesk staff to do something one way, and then another time another operative will tell me an alternative best practice—eg on simple things like having folders within Outlook—one told me to set up subfolders in my Inbox—another later said that was the root of problems which then occurred on my system.

    (b)  Logging calls—when I worked at Savills, each call to the help desk was given a reference number, similar to the PICT practice—what would ensue would be an email to me with that reference number and the nature of the problem and status of the call—whether closed, pending further call etc., this might be helpful for those of us who may need to call on the same day about different things and not always write the reference number down.

JANE GORDON-CUMMING (OFFICE OF MR QUENTIN DAVIES MP)

  1.  Our new computer equipment has been installed. One very disappointing feature was the limited range of combined printers/photocopier/fax machines on offer.

  2.  We now have a large, cumbersome Dell Laser MFP 1815dn—with one paper tray and no colour printing facility. It takes up an inordinate amount of space—anything larger on offer (with the additional paper tray and colour print—very useful facilities) simply would not fit in our extremely limited office space, which must be a common phenomenon in most offices on the Parliamentary estate. It is also extremely noisy. There must be more suitable choices on the market.

  3.  How much input did the Committee receive before choosing the new computer equipment?

ALEX HAYDON (OFFICE OF MR EDWARD LEIGH MP)

  Only improvement I can think of is to please get more staff so we don't have to wait so long to get through to PICT!

CHRISTINE HEALD (OFFICE OF MR OLIVER HEALD MP)

  I am not sure if this is covered by the Enquiry, but I do not think that existing provision is adequate for the level of work—and therefore numbers of staff—needed in both Parliamentary and constituency offices. E-mail, in particular, has led to an explosion of work. We find that we have to buy extra computer equipment and printers from IEP each year. I hope that the current provision can be reviewed.

LENA HUSKINSON (OFFICE OF JIM KNIGHT MP)

  1.  I consider that the roll-out of new computer equipment was slow compared with the original time scale given, but that may be because I share an office in a rural constituency. I also feel that although the new Dell computers are very good compared with the old stock that was removed; the Dell Fax/Photocopier/scanner/Printer 1600N is certainly not fit for purpose when it comes to office efficiency. I can only compare this with the old HP G85 we used to have which was far superior to the current machine we have to use because it was the only one offered. It is slow, difficult to feed with headed paper when you need to keep the tray filled with copy paper in case any faxes come in and useless when you need to copy paperwork that may be written in blue ink or coloured in any way—I have to ask a favour from another office to use their copier on a regular basis. Perhaps a stand alone small copier should have been supplied along with the computer stock. In other words the office efficiency rating has declined as a result of lack of forethought by whoever chose to purchase this model. A complaint has been put into the Helpdesk and it was clear from comments made that there have been many similar complaints.

  2.   I also feel that not enough IT training is available to constituency staff as we are unable to take advantage of the regular courses on the Parliamentary Estate. Surely some sort of on-line courses could be offered to staff that come from non clerical working backgrounds. That way time could be set aside within a working week for training to take place.

MARGARET HWANG (OFFICE OF DAWN PRIMAROLO MP)

  1.  Generally speaking the equipment refresh has been very welcome and seems to have worked well.

  2.  The centralisation of IT support has worked very well in my experience, although after a four month absence due to illness, I noticed on my return that queries are being dealt with using a "call-centre" approach with a set script of questions. With no disrespect to the staff intended, it is a subtle deterioration in the service I was used to before.

  3.  If possible, a single telephone contact number for MPs' staff to ring Dell would be helpful.

  Update (March 2007): I would say that I no longer find PICT support excessively call-centre-like (2nd point); and now that PICT provide Dell consumables direct to MPs' offices there should be less need to contact Dell. If apart from consumables, there remains a need to contact Dell, a dedicated contact point for Dell would definitely be desirable.

THOMAS LOCKTON (OFFICE OF SIR ALAN HASELHURST MP)

  1.  Regarding the computer services, the only complaint I could possibly have would be that I fail to see why it is not possible to use Mozilla Firefox as a browser as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer. Personally I find Firefox a far superior browser, although of course IE is perfectly useable.

  2.  Apart from that everything appears reasonable.

HENRY MATTHEWS AND OTHERS (OFFICE OF LYNNE JONES MP)

PCD Support for Casework database (MP Case)

  1.  PCD to provide (& provide support for) an "in-house" casework database system that all parties could use. We use MP Case and PCD will not help with any technical problems arising from the programme or networking issues.

Recess

  2.  There were quite a few IT problems over the summer recess with voicemail, access to the Intranet and the Post Room systems going down. We wonder if there is enough cover to keep service going properly during recess. Also we were very concerned that only 14 hours notice was given of the IT hardware works which required the floor of the offices to come up, resulting in this office's staff being kept out of the office for 3.5 hours. This gives the impression that PICT/facilities believes no one is busy during recess, which is far from the case.

Intranet Website

  3.  The old website had a few large buttons which were the main ones needed—ie Hansard, Commons Library, PIMs, EDMs. With the new website, not all of these useful buttons are available so for some things that one uses all the time you now have to go through 2 or 3 links to get to (eg, Commons Daily Debates = 3 links). As a result, people often don't use the website at all but set up these things as favourites. We feel there needs to be some rationalisation here.

PIMS

  4.  It would be very useful if it were possible to do a search, eg on all PQs on rendition and then just email this to someone as a concise list.

  5.  We still experience instances of PQs not coming up. For example we may remember that a PQ of Lynne's may contain a particular unusual word, but despite putting her name in and the word, it doesn't come up. Conversely, if you put "energy" in the search term for PQs, of the first 10 answers, nos 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of a possible 48,442 have nothing whatsoever to do with energy.

Hansard

  6.  If you do an advanced search in Hansard, say on a PQ number, it often doesn't work. eg PQ 94497, which is Lynne's PQ to PM, won't come up in Hansard search when 94497 is put in the PQ number box.

Factiva

  7.  We have had instances where we cannot find articles which we know are there. For example, when we put in "benefits"—plus search date of "today" and in "full article"—we do not get the article we're looking for (BIGGER BILL FOR PENSIONS AND BENEFITS FROM SEPTEMBER RPI. Financial Times, 18 October 2006, By CHRIS GILES, 289 words.) However, when we put in "benefits" into the headline search we do get the article. This decreases our confidence in the full article search facility. (NB since checking this anomaly, this error appears not to be occurring. We will inform the library, of any specific search issues with Factiva if they happen in the future).

Broadband

  8.  Quicker broadband services to constituency offices would be helpful.

Recycling

  9.  Lack of any obvious recycling scheme for Dell printer toner cartridges.

PHILIPPE MINCHIN (OFFICE OF JOHN SMITH MP)

  1.  On the whole I am very pleased with the ICT services.

  2.  I would like to know, however, what becomes of the old IT equipment every time Parliament renews its IT stock . Is there a system in place whereby old IT equipment which is in good working order is donated to charities and organisations throughout the UK?

HEATHER MILLICAN (OFFICE OF PATRICK MERCER MP)

  1.  I think we receive excellent support from PICT help desk.

  2.  However I am really disappointed with the new printers. They are too big, too noisy and too slow. Also a completely unnecessary "box" pops up about toner supplies every time one sends anything to print. HP ones were much better and I can see no good reason for changing them.

  3.  Disappointed that the new software does not support the BBC ticker which I found really, really useful for monitoring breaking news.

VERONICA OAKESHOTT (OFFICE OF MS SALLY KEEBLE MP)

  I think the service is excellent. The staff are friendly, patient and helpful.

RORY PALMER (OFFICE OF SIR PETER SOULSBY MP)

  1.  For a large part of the current year the VPN connection to the Parliamentary network has been very poor. This has been of great frustration and has severely affected mine, and colleagues, work.

  2.  The unpredictable nature of the connection has been a cause of major problems; unpredictable in terms of speed of connection and whether it would be possible to connect at all.

  3.  This situation now appears to be resolved with the connection much improved.

  4.  I have also experienced difficulties trying to access Factiva by VPN and I am told this is because of a problem with the intranet. This sort of problem, like the VPN connectivity problems, are of great frustration to those of us who do not work on the parliamentary estate but who do need to have connection into the parliamentary network.

KEITH PORTEOUS WOOD (OFFICE OF DR EVAN HARRIS MP)

  1.  I appreciate your concern and efforts to help off-site Parliamentary workers.

  2.  I was disappointed that the Factiva press information system that replaced Lexis Nexis system cannot be accessed by ADSL and an RSA token system, unlike its predecessor. I hope that the remedial update will be given a high priority because this makes working very slow for those working away from Parliament on non-parliamentary machines.

  3.  I hope a setting can be arranged for those using the RSA token in a secure environment (their normal office as opposed to an internet cafe[acute], for example) so that the connection does not log off so quickly. It is currently around five minutes, which means that a new log in can be needed after being interrupted by a short phone call. Thirty minutes would seem much more reasonable.

  4.  Could priority be given to establishing a stable near-infallible search engine of parliamentary material please. The current advanced search is once more highly unreliable, after a year or so of stability. The problem is noted on the website itself and can lead to serious errors.

  5.  I have significant number of suggestions about the layout of the website and how the paper trail of amendments and bills could be significantly improved. It should be possible to work on such issues without ever needing paper from the House, but this is not the case.

HAZEL PRIEST (OFFICE OF JIM KNIGHT MP)

  1.  We had to wait longer than a year after the general election to receive our computers and the original order is date the 23 May 2005. We kept being promised the new computers but they just did not turn up and we struggled on in the constituency unable to do our job properly. Whilst the computers are superior to the ones we previously had the printer is rubbish. It doesn't matter how many times you use it, it always has to warm up. The copy quality is rubbish and I often have to either copy documents on another printer for which there is a charge or I have to copy them on my cheapy printer at home. Please, please can we have a printer that is fit for purpose?

  2.  Whilst there are loads of wonderful courses for those in the house to pop into, we get nothing in the constituencies. Those employees who work in Parliament have superior access and for us to do a short course would involve a whole day when travel is included and few staff can afford the luxury of a whole day away from the office. All staff should be able to do the ECDL or equivalent which they can access through the net and take any exams locally.

JONNY REYNOLDS (OFFICE OF JAMES PURNELL MP)

  1.  I have worked for a member for three years now, and ICT services have really improved in that time.

  2.  One thing that is a problem however is internet access for non-PCD laptops within Parliament. There must surely be a way for private computers that meet the necessary security criteria (eg virus free etc) to be able to get internet access and possibly log into the network. Perhaps one solution might be a parliamentary wireless network with a passcode that would only be given out to staff?

RICHARD ROBINSON (OFFICE OF MR ANDY REED MP)

  1.  Can I firstly state that I find the staff employed at PICT extremely helpful, courteous and patient & knowledgeable!

  2.  Moving on to the concerns I have (these are based on a constituency office point of view)—

    —  When we had the new machines installed earlier this year, we experienced tremendous problems transferring data from the old machines to the new ones. Data was not mapped properly by the external engineer who installed the new equipment (and was to have supposed to have transferred all the old data from the previous machine). This resulted in a week's lost output as we were unable to fully utilise Outlook e mails on the new machines (which of course in the constituency—is a crucial link with the MP etc etc).

    —  What I'd really like you to consider is PICT being able to offer more "on site" assistance in constituency offices. I understand there is a cost implication to this, but I do feel that some more complex IT problems could be sorted much quicker.

  3.  Plus on a related point to this—where constituency office have purchased part of their IT kit that is not supplied directly by PICT, there is definitely the need to be able to reach a full resolution through PICT. Currently where for example some non standard kit has been purchased, then PICT are not able to offer a full solution. In our office for example, where we have tremendous problems accessing e mails via VPN—PICT are unable to support us because a couple of items of hardware (router etc) were purchased from external suppliers.

    —  Therefore if you would allow PICT to be able to visit on site and be able to support ICT services, irrespective of where kit is purchased from—that would be an enormous step forward. I do not believe this would lead to endless conflict on who is liable for what—it would just serve to allow a much quicker resolution to ICT problems that are not intractable—just currently not able to resolved because of convention and protocol.

BEN ROWE (OFFICE OF MR DAVID HEATHCOAT-AMORY MP)

  As well mannered and willing as the PCD staff are, they can at times be baffled by the most seemingly simple problem—it does seem as if they have a script to read from, as opposed to being absolute top of the range IT operatives. Further to this, the continual disruption to the Parliamentary Intranet is becoming beyond a joke—many members of staff are losing out on valuable resources due to the inability to get it fixed.

  Update (March 2007): One thing I would like to stress was that this statement was provided at least four or five months ago—at a time when the Intranet had been down continually for three weeks, and many of us were unable to access the HoC Library website. Since that time access to the network has been more or less fine—and, on the occasion that it has been down, it has rarely been down for more than a couple of days. As for the PICT staff, they seem to have improved in that time.

PAUL SCULLY (OFFICE OF MR ANDREW PELLING MP)

  1.  Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this. There are a few areas that I would briefly like to cover:

Network

  2.  I am based in Star Chamber Court, the quality of the network has been patchy at best over the summer months, occasionally resulting in closing the office for a few hours. We use the CMITS case-management software which is very dependant on the parliamentary network and errors frequently occur which can be traced back to the network capability. CMITS and Outlook are vital to our operation as we try to run a paperless office as best as we can. This is fine when the network is up and running but it leaves us at the mercy of the system. I am not sure what resilience is built into the system to ensure that it doesn't trip over if a single unit or patch goes down.

Wireless Network

  3.  PICT supplied laptops had their wireless capabilities turned off by default. A wireless hotspot covering the Parliamentary Estate (certainly throughout PCH and the Palace) would be of great benefit, especially with the cramped working conditions. Similarly a secure-access extranet would be very helpful to encourage home-working rather than limiting this to PICT supplied PCs. I understand the need for security, though I would imagine that significant areas of the intranet and MPs own files could be made available under a system that would meet security standards.

Dell Consumables

  4.  This is still a mystery to many members of staff that I speak to. Since private companies are able to set up an online account with dell to order their toner etc. directly over the Internet, could we not do the same? Calling India rarely takes less than half an hour and I have only had one correct set of paperwork in amongst some six orders placed. This cannot be good for Dell and is certainly not for us. For future procurement needs, I would prefer to see a provider whose consumables are more widely available. Though Dell computers are extremely popular, their printers are somewhat less so and unless changes can be made to the purchase of consumables, we are hostages to fortune within the contract.

CMITS

  5.  I have touched on this before. Since the 2005 election, there has been a substantially increased take up of this product. The Scottish Parliament provide this as a matter of course for all of their members and I understand that it is being rolled out in other Parliaments abroad. Since it is becoming established as one of the leading case management software packages here in Parliament, can PICT deal directly with the provider to meet the requirements of the product and to ensure that the future development of the product meets the requirements of the Parliamentary network.

JOHN STEWART (OFFICE OF SIR ROBERT SMITH MP)

  1.  Only two comments.

  2.  Quite a large number of the PICT helpdesk staff don't always seem to have a full grasp of the systems they are trying to help with. One example—when we had our "refresh" computers installed, the first guy I got knew exactly what needed to be done to get our constituency office up and running on VPN, but ran out of time to do the other two.

  3.  When I came to have the other two connected, I got a different person, and it quickly became obvious they were not following the same routine. I pointed this out, but was assured they were doing the right thing. No surprise when our connection didn't work. I knew what the problem was, but the person I was dealing with didn't seem to want to know or listen. It took ages for anyone to call back and try and sort the problem (we are talking over a week!). In the meantime, I had used my fairly limited IT knowledge to complete the connection myself.

  4.  Secondly, I am not happy with the switch from LexusNexus to Factiva—bring back LexusNexus!

ROGER THISTLE (OFFICE OF TOM BRAKE MP)

  1.  I am writing on behalf of Tom and his staff and from a remote constituency office location.

Remote log on and speed

  2.  The first thing to note is that logging on to, and using PDVN still remains consistently slower than working locally on our own network, and discourages us from using the system the way it was intended, ie "permanently on". There has been some improvement in recent months, but there are still times when there is a significant pause, as we wait for the system to "catch up" in the middle of a letter.

Passwords

  3.  Is it still really necessary to have four password protocols to reach Parliament? (DOS; local; parliament; then parliament again for e-mail). This seems to be overkill!

Networking

  4.  Trying to integrate our own equipment leaves us with several irritating bugs such as printing/choosing tray/stalling/errors and order of log on/off requirements

Printers

  5.  Dell printers have been the biggest disappointment. We have a 1600 and 5100. We have no instruction book for them (paper or on-line), an irritating pop-up showing "Dell toner cartridge status" on every single print job and poor value for money because of consumables, not just toner but "drum replacement" as well, something not experienced with cheaper brands. The error messages on the machines are difficult to understand, the systems are not coordinated to ensure that when a paper tray is selected it always prints to the right tray, and it often defaults for no apparent reason. Conversely when printer memory is full the 1600 DOESN'T tell us through the print dialogue, but just stops working altogether. The printer has an irritating "beep" which repeats whenever the paper tray is empty, but far too loud and repetitive. Finally the scanner/photocopier top on the 1600 is very dangerous in that when the lid is lifted, the user is blinded by white light. The left hand window should be properly masked as soon as the lid is lifted, not afterwards when the damage is done. In general it has been difficult ordering consumables because Dell were only able to send them to "House of Commons Westminster" which is clearly ridiculous. One went missing as a result. We have no instructions on how to use the scanner.

Replacement PC

  6.  A hard drive "went' on one of the new PCs this year. There was real difficulty contacting the appropriate engineer to fix the job. When he arrived he knew nothing of the Parliamentary system and was unable to restore the PC to PDVN use. Another visit was necessary.

Helpdesk

  7.  The PDVN helpdesk has been patient and helpful throughout.

SARAH VERO (OFFICE OF DR IAN GIBSON MP)

  Dell computers have provided consistently poor and delayed delivery of toners. They also sent our constituency office invoices and toners ordered by several other MPs offices and then took their time rectifying the matter. Would it be possible for the House to buy a bulk lot of toners and distribute them? Westminster staff could have the option to collect them manually and constituency staff would not have to deal with offshore call centres. Neither office would have to put up with late delivery and broken promises. (the Banner stationary toners are not genuine Dell toners but refills and do not work in my printer).

CHARLOTTE WALLIS (OFFICE OF MR KENNETH CLARKE MP)

  I would like to comment on the poor quality of the Dell printer which has been supplied with the new IT equipment for our office use. We need to be able to print addresses on envelopes and the machine is much too sensitive for practical use in this way. It takes literally several minutes of patient handling to produce a printed envelope—and even then it is not always successful—and I am sure you will appreciate that this is simply not practical.

VIVIENNE WINDLE (OFFICE OF LIZ BLACKMAN MP)

  1.  Having used the service since 1998, it is increasingly clear that the 2001 helpdesk approach is no longer viable. When MPs have problems with their IT, they do not have time to hang on or wait for call backs, and it therefore falls to office staff to sort out troubleshooting problems. When it was a case of computers and telephones, it was fairly simple. The problems began when VPN was started, and people were recruited for PCD Helpdesk from Australia and South Africa on temporary contracts until the end of the project. The problem was that these people were helpful and knowledgeable, but when they left there were inevitably still problems, and it was harder to get help. Now more and more technical hardware is available to MPs and their staff, and this means that more support is needed when things go wrong. Although it is very easy to get hold of someone by ringing 2001, there is a wide range of specialisms, and delays in getting major problems sorted out are caused by waiting for someone who understands that particular device or software to ring back. We have to phone the same number for telephones, computers, video screens, VPN access from the constituencies, MPs laptops (repair and advice on use) and now the new handheld devices Members have been issued with. Problems which could be sorted out in a couple of hours now take days to resolve, because each time we phone 2001, we speak to a new person who is not the member of staff we need to speak to, and they are not allowed to leave a direct dial extension number for us to phone them back.

  2.  It is now time to split the duties of the PICT team and have specific numbers for specific problems, so we know that even if we have to wait a little longer for an answer, when we do get to speak to someone they will be someone who can definitely help.

  3.  The other comment we have to make (Westminster and constituency office staff) is that the handheld devices should not have been offered to MPs until specific advice on their use, and not just pdf versions of the instruction booklet, were available. There should have been some research into how MPs use their email before they were offered, so that MPs could make an informed decision as to whether they would be useful or not. Suggestions for additional items to purchase, such as additional chargers would have been useful, as MPs need to have duplicates of these in Westminster and in the constituency.

  4.  When anything new is offered to Members in the future, it might be an idea to consult with staff, particularly those who work for non-computer literate MPs, or MPs who have not enthusiastically joined ICT consultation exercises, panels and All Party Groups, to find out what would help and what would not. This would relieve the burden on the Help Desk as new technology is taken on and people start to have problems with them.

ALEXANDER WOODMAN (OFFICE OF STEPHEN WILLIAMS MP)

Introduction

  1.  These comments are submitted on behalf of the constituency-based staff of Stephen Williams MP (Bristol West) and relate to the provision of equipment and services for constituency offices. The staff currently consists of two full-time staff and two part-time staff. All staff except one have worked in the office in June 2005, the other since December 2005.

  2.  As an office we rely heavily on the equipment and services provided by PICT for our communications and computing needs. Our main use of the services provided by PICT is for the efficient, effective and secure transfer of documents and information between the Westminster and constituency office. Further uses include access to data and research available on the Parliamentary network.

  3.  We focus in this submission primarily on the areas of the Committee's enquiry relating to constituency provision, customer service, new equipment roll-out, and future equipment and service need (points d, e, f and g of the Information Notice). Points below are organised under these general headings.

Constituency Provision

  4.  We believe that the VPN is a useful tool for the tasks mentioned in paragraph 2. However, we feel it is seriously flawed in terms of speed. This is obviously dependent on the speed of a constituency office's internet connection. With up to four users using our 2Mbps ADSL connection, downloading/opening larger files from the shared "S" drive can become very slow.

  5.  This problem is even more acute when uploading/saving files to the "S" drive, due to the asymmetric nature of the connection—ie download speeds are significantly greater than upload speeds. Typically, we can upload files at a speed of approximately 0.3Mbps. For larger files, this is too slow.

  6.  Another speed-related problem is the use of e-mail, and the sending/receiving of e-mails with large attachments. As in the case of access to the "S" drive, the relatively slow speed of the connection, compared to speed of access on the Parliamentary Estate causes long delays when trying to send or receive large e-mails.

Customer Service

  7.  We have experienced significant problems when reporting problems with equipment to PICT. On approximately 12 occasions we have reported problems to PICT and been advised that an engineer or technician will call back to assist in rectifying the problem. In each case, the call back has taken at least three days.

  8.  Given the reliance we have on ICT, we consider that a resolution time of three days for problems is unacceptably long. However, on one occasion, it took two weeks before we received a call.

New Equipment Roll-Out

  9.  We found the provision of new equipment after the 2005 election to be prompt.

  10.  Despite this, it took over a month before engineers arrived to install the equipment. During this time, numerous appointments were made, but despite that the engineers did not arrive.

  11.  Within a few weeks of the election, as a new Member Stephen Williams received a significant number of letters and e-mails. Without adequate IT equipment, we experienced difficulties in ensuring the constituents' queries were responded to promptly, which potentially damaged his reputation.

Future equipment and service need

  12.  We believe that the equipment provided for Members' offices is adequate, however future improvements could nonetheless be made.

  13.  The cost of installing wiring for networking in our office to allow each PC to access the internet/VPN was £550. We believe that there is an opportunity to mitigate this cost for all Members in future by providing and installing wireless networking equipment.

EILEEN WRIGHT (OFFICE OF MR PATRICK MCLOUGHLIN MP)

  As I work for two peers and a journalist as well as for a Member of Parliament, I did not think it right to have a Government provided computer and printer so my equipment belongs to me, personally. I have to say that I seem to have far less trouble with mine than the others around me have with theirs, but I must not shout too loudly! It is a Dell, but a different variety.

A MEMBER'S EMPLOYEE WHO HAS ASKED TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS

  1.  I work in the Constituency mainly handling diary issues, arranging and attending meetings and visits, providing briefing notes. I work online all the time and I have to say that I feel I have been badly let down. I have suffered from so much stress recently that I thought I would have to take time off work—all due to the inadequacy of the system. I have worked for 30 years and have never suffered stress through work, or stress-related problems at all. I have worked at senior project management level in the past ( I now choose to work within an interesting part-time environment).

  2.  The system is inadequate for remote working. I have spoken to the Help Desk about 20 times in the last two weeks. Sometimes I speak to someone who knows how to resolve the problem—sometimes not. Basic inadequacies, not being able to access programmes, printer not working etc. due to remote disconnection, server problems etc. Sometimes the Help Desk ring back or pass on the problem—sometimes not.

  3.  Due to Broadband not being connected when it should have been I have had lots of problems in the last few months—the VPN system is unsatisfactory. When trying to undertake research the computer just freezes and I have to "shut down" and re-start. Email is now a large part of working life and sometimes the system just collapses and I have to re-commence replying/writing to constituents or other agencies. It's a real pain and I think repeating one's work, not being able to rely on the system or resolve issues causes the stress.

  4.  A few years ago my MP arranged for the Help Desk Manager to meet with himself and me in Westminster. Things improved for a while but clearly I still have problems.

  5.  The arrangements for the new computers have been a headache too. We were notified in February of the new Dell computers. We completed forms and returned them as requested. In April we asked what was happening as we had been told that we would be provided with new computers in March/April. We were then told that our forms had been mislaid. We completed more forms. Again, the same thing happened. At the beginning of July, after asking about the computers, forms were filled in late one Friday evening and returned again. The next week I was asked to complete my form via email as again something had been mislaid. The computer arrived and was installed. I feel the whole operation has been disjointed. I now have one old computer, one new computer and another computer arrived a few weeks ago—which I don't need ! That was sent to our other office who had been waiting weeks for their computer to arrive !! But another one arrived there too, eventually. This week an engineer arrives to transfer data from the old computer to the new one and I hope to be able to be connected to Broadband—at last !! The old computer will be taken away. I don't think the Help Desk pass on messages re problems. As soon as Dell comes on board, things seem to happen quickly.

  6.  I have worked in the NHS and over 12 years ago I was involved in arranging GP computer systems linking with the Health Authorities across Yorkshire and Humberside. That worked better than this all those years ago. There was a real effort to meet users' needs from the outset and to resolve problems before they even happened. I wonder why that approach hasn't been used for us ?

  7.  Sorry to rattle on but you did ask !!!

  8.  I hope you have a clear picture of the discrepancies in my working life . . .

  Update (October 2006): After complaining so many times that I have lost count, I was telephoned last week to say that an engineer would arrive this morning at 10.00 am to transfer data from my old machine to my new one. The engineer has just telephoned—an hour after he was supposed to arrive—to say that he doesn't know how to transfer this data and he is trying to find out how to do this. No indication of when the transfer will occur.

  I have just informed my MP of this as I have work piling up that needs attention. If I don't hear anything this week, my MP has suggested that I go to Westminster next week so that he and I meet with the Manager of the Help Desk/IT Department again.

  Am I the only person to have such problems?

  Further update (March 2007): The issues stated above relate to the last nine years—things have improved since Broadband and the new Dell system. All computers are where they should be and we are all working well. I think that information would need to be stated to keep things in context and to be fair. I just hope that the improvement continues! Thankfully, I am no longer suffering the stress that I referred to previously.





 
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