§ Mr. ToddTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will list each of the functions relating to the payroll for which her Department is responsible, indicating the management systems purchased, all sub-contractors involved in the work, co-operative arrangements with other Departments and the costs of the systems and processes in the last year for which figures are available. [10744]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Department of Social Security's payroll function is carried out in-house using an integrated pay and personnel computer system. The networked system is available across the Department for the operation of payroll and personnel management through local personnel units. A database, holding details of employee accounts, shares a mainframe computer with the Department's main benefit processing systems. All DSS staff salaries are paid by the system either monthly or weekly directly into bank accounts via automated credit transfer.
365WManagement of personnel unit operations rests separately with each individual executive agency and department headquarters. An external supplier, Harvest Ltd. has responsibility for Contributions Agency personnel operations. It was the successful bidder in a market test exercise. All other personnel operations are in-house.
Payroll support services, for all agencies, are operated by the Benefits Agency under a joint venture agreement. The central administration, technical support units and IT operations are run from the Department's Newcastle offices. The BA contracts the Information Technology Services Agency for system running, maintenance and support. ITSA in turn manages a series of contracts with external providers of IT services that cover the whole range of administration and benefits systems which the DSS operates. Payroll IT operations form a small part of these total contracts. The external service providers for the Department's IT services, including payroll, are EDS, Sema Group and Bull Systems.
The pay and personnel system is part of the Department's financial and management information system—FAMIS—which also includes its administrative accounting systems. The payroll and personnel element of FAMIS was developed entirely in house, by the BA and ITSA, over a three-year period and has been operating successfully for four years. It now supports six separate pay, grading and reward structures, one for each agency and department headquarters. The system is also responsible for tax and national insurance administration for all DSS staff.
There are no direct, on-going, co-operation arrangements in place for payroll with other Departments apart from standing arrangements for employee transfers between Departments.
Because FAMIS has been designed to support both pay and personnel functions within the Department by the use of a common data base and IT processes, it is not possible to provide costs that solely relate to payroll processing. The information in the following table relates to central business and IT process costs to support both payroll and personnel activity in the Department.
align="center">DSS expenditure on payroll 1996–97 align="right">£ million Function Labour costs IT costs Record maintenance and main payroll functions including ACT, tax and national insurance calculation and payment 1.46 1.36 Annual pay awards (6) 0.31 0.30 Business support/helpline 0.72 — Pay re-calculation processing and appeals including recovery action on overpayments 0.84 — Computer system support — 0.47 Total 3.33 2.13