HC Deb 08 February 1999 vol 325 cc64-5W
26. Mrs. Gordon

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on progress on the active modem service programme. [68032]

Angela Eagle

Significant progress has been made within the Active Modem Service Programme. In recent weeks we have selected a private sector partner; Affinity, who will work with us to develop new IT systems. These new systems will enable us to deliver improved Social Security services and deliver our welfare reform programme. Working in partnership with the Department of Education and Employment and Employment Services, we have begun development of a single gateway to the welfare system to help people back to work. Finally, we have started to evaluate the modem service prototypes, piloted in Camden and Lewisham. Both these pilots successfully tested the provision of an integrated service to customers and we are using the lessons learnt to feed into our plans.