§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what were the costs of operating the(a) 0800 100101 and (b) 0345 300130 telephone services to the citizens charter unit; what was the total number of calls made to each line during its operation; what were the costs of establishing, publicising and operating each service; and what assessment his Department has made of these services. [17797]
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what were the costs of operating the citizens charter publication line; what was the number of calls made to it for each month of its operation; what were the costs of establishing, publicising and operating this service; and what assessment his Department has made of this service. [17799]
§ Mr. HoramThe citizens charter publication line on 0345 22 32 42 was set up on 16 March to send out copies of the guide to the citizens charter White Papers; details of how to obtain the follow-up charters; the code of practice on access to Government information; charter mark award scheme information; "Charter News"; and complaints task force information. The service remains in operation; calls are charged at a local rate. Initially the service was managed by IBM national call centre. When the contract expired the service was run directly by the charter unit until 17 October 1994, then a new contract was awarded to Inform Communications who have managed the publications line since then.
The costs of operating the publication line and the number of calls up to 16 March 1995 are:
947W
Period covered Number of calls Operating costs (excluding VAT) £ Set up costs1 £ Managed by 16 March 1994–10 July 19942 5,160 23,204.59 1,420.00 IBM National Call Centre 11 July 1994–16 August 1994 405 absorbed within Charter unit running costs Citizen's Charter Unit 17 August 1994–16 September 1994 132 17 September 1994–16 October 1994 145 17 October 1994–16 November 1994 432 1,654.22 640.00 Inform Communications 7 November 1994–16 December 1994 250 1,044.12 17 December 1994–16 January 1995 120 753.55 17 January 1995–16 February 1995 451 1,453.55 17 February 1995–16 March 1995 480 1,394.35 Note: 1 One-off costs. 2 The time period covers the IBM management of the Publication Line. The telephone number for the publication line was publicised in the citizens charter second report, 1994 and other internal newsletters and magazines; no specific publicity costs have been incurred.
The service is kept under continuous review, and decisions about continuation and contractual arrangements are made accordingly.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what were the costs of operating the charterline telephone information service; what was the number of calls made to it for each month of its operation; what were the costs of establishing, publicising and operating this service; and what assessment his Department has made of this service. [17798]
§ Mr. HoramThe cost of operating the charterline information service from 19 May 1993—the setting up of the pilot scheme—to 19 March 1994, the ending of the evaluation of the pilot scheme was £1,130,991.
During this period, charterline received 5,603 calls. A month-by-month breakdown of this number is not available.
The breakdown of the costs of the pilot scheme until 19 March 1994 is as follows:
Developmental costs £ Ongoing costs £ Initial research 67,000 — Set up charges 749,000 — System Design 119,918 — Project planning and management 195,000 — Selection of pilot region 25,000 — Regional seminars 21,000 — Data collection 57,000 — Detailed requirements, acceptance testing and financial modelling 50,520 — CCTA contractual advice 47,761 — Advertising — 602,922 Research during pilot study — 61,239 IBM operational costs — 403,579 Charterline language service (set up and operational charges) — 34,951 CACI use of ACORN data — 28,300 Totals 1,332,199 1,130,991 This information, together with other data on the charterline pilot is contained in the document "Charterline Evaluation Report", a copy of which is in the Library of the House.
948WParagraphs 41–44 of the evaluation report set out the conclusions at the end of the study. The evaluation showed what information people wanted to know about their public services but also that there were problems with doing this through charterline because of the lack of awareness of the service. In the light of these conclusions, it was decided that charterline should not be continued, and the pilot scheme ended on 6 May 1995. Subsequently, the charter unit has worked with Yellow Pages and Thomson Directories to develop the information on public services that they provide in their directories.