§ John RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the types of jobs that have been offshored in the past 12 months. [159126]
§ Ms HewittThe principal areas where services work has been transferred offshore include call centres, data and business processing and analysis ("back office") operations, and IT services such as software development.
1425WMy Department has commissioned research on the key factors contributing to the relative competitiveness of UK call centre operations to help identify any appropriate actions which need to be taken by industry or Government in response to the increasingly global market for call centre services. This will include an examination of the main product areas in the UK call and contact centre industry that are vulnerable to growing competition from lower-wage economies; which types of call and contract centre activity and which regions have been most affected or are most likely to be affected in the near future.