§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the cost to his Department of putting together the work in-house bid for his Department's data processing work.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythI regret that the information is not available.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 9 February,Official Report, column 492, how many people were employed at Corby on data entry operation; how many were made redundant following its acquisition by Sema Group; and which organisation will be paying toward the redundancies.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythFollowing the award of a contract to Sema Group for the supply of Home Office administrative information technology services, staff in the undertaking were transferred to Sema Group on 1 November 1994; this included 42 data entry staff employed at Corby.
660WAlthough subsequent redundancies by Sema Group are a matter for it, we understand from the company that all data entry staff in Corby were invited on 3 January 1995 to apply for voluntary redundancy, that as a result all 42 staff are to be made redundant by Sema Group; the costs of the redundancies will be paid by Sema Group. It is the intention of Sema Group to use a subcontractor for the provision of data entry services which is in accordance with the terms of its contract with the Home Office. We understand that the subcontractor is offering similar employment locally to all staff.