§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on progress on the conversion of his Department's regions into agencies.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe Department has so far established two agencies, the Resettlement Units executive agency in May 1989 and the Information Technology Services agency in April 1990. The Social Security Benefits agency and the Contributions agency are planned to be implemented in April 1991. The White Paper "Children Come First", CM 1264, announced the proposed setting up of the child support agency in early 1993.
The aim of introducing agencies is to enable the Department to provide a better quality of service to its customers by the introduction of more effective and efficient management.