§ Mr. Norman Hoggasked the Secretary of State for Social Services on how many occasions in the past three years girocheques issued by the Livingston computer centre to Scottish claimants have been delivered late: what information he has as to the cause of late delivery in each case; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LyellIn the last three years there have been six incidents of delay to Scottish claimants attributable to the computer centre. On 28 February 1984 industrial action meant that giros for that day were dispatched a day late. In November 1984 a batch of 6,000 giros were delayed by a day; 800 giros were similarly delayed on 16 January 1986. On both occasions delay was caused by dispatch errors.
In January 1986 an unprecendented fault occurred in the system. In this instance local unemployment benefit offices were forewarned and those offices took steps to minimise the impact on claimants. Similar faults occurred on 15 July 1986 and 2 October 1986. Other instances of non-delivery were outside the control of the computer centre.
Detailed figures for Scotland are available only for the past year up to October 1986, as follows:
Problems are inevitable in an undertaking of this magnitude. When any fault does occur all effort is then directed towards minimising the impact on claimants.