§ Sir George YoungTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on progress on the relocation work from local offices to Glasgow.
§ Mr. NewtonI am pleased to announce that relocation of all backroom work from the first cluster of four London offices—Ealing, Southall, Acton and Notting Hill—to the social security centre was completed on schedule on 18 June 1990.
My Department recently undertook an evaluation study to establish whether the initiative had resulted in an improved service to our London customers. The results were most encouraging. Claims are being processed much more accurately. The error rate has fallen significantly from 29 to 9 per cent. Work is also being dealt with faster. The average time taken to clear a claim has been reduced by 50 per cent., from 11 days to five days. Caller waiting times have also been reduced, and a sampling exercise revealed that, already, between a third and half of customers have noticed an improvement in the quality of service provided. It is also encouraging that these improvements have been made against a background of greater efficiency: the cost of processing a unit of benefit has reduced by half, from £12 to £6. I am arranging to place a copy of the evaluation study in the Library.