§ Mr. Andrew MacKayasked the Secretary of State:for Social Services why the computer network serving his 233W Department's local offices for supplementary benefit and other locally administered benefits will not be available nationally until late 1988.
§ Mr. NewtonThe local office project, to which my hon. Friend refers, is a scheme of considerable size and complexity. It would link over 500 local officers into a national computer network, and radically alter the nature of local office work. The full study report on the first phase of the project has just been completed. On current plans we estimate it would take about four and a half years, after approval, to complete the stages of hardware procurement, building the computer accommodation, system design, programme development, and testing. This will include an extended evaluation period of live running in a sample of local offices to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system before national implementation.