§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the cost to the Manpower Services Commission of employing management or computer consultants for each year from 1983 to 1987.
§ Mr. NichollsThe Manpower Services Commission, now the Training Commission, spent the following amounts on management and computer consultancy in the financial years 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87 and 1987–88.
Year £ thousands 1984–85 847 1985–86 994 1986–87 1,422 1987–88 MSC 1,279 ES 1373 1 It should be noted that the figures provided relate to the organisation of the MSC prior to reorganisation on 26 October 1987 and therefore include spend appropriate to the employment service. The 1987–88 figures have been split to show the amounts appropriate to MSC and ES.
§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the cost to his Department of employing management or computer consultants for each year from 1983 to 1987.
§ Mr. NichollsExpenditure in the Department of Employment Group, excluding the Training Commission and employment service in each year from 1983 to 1987 on management and computer consultancy was as follows:
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£ thousands 1983 307 1984 346 1985 407 1986 671 1987 1,007
§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list each management or computer consultancy contract extant in his Department as at 1 January 1987, giving in each case the name of the consultancy firm and the subject of the assignment.
§ Mr. NichollsThe following firms had consultancy contracts extant in the Department of Employment group, excluding the Manpower Services Commission, at 1 January 1987:
Firm Subject of Assignment CMG Ltd. Study into Electronic Mail EDP Ltd. Support for financial payments systems Logica Support for personnel records system PA Consultants Advice on Office Automation systems appraisal Portfolio Systems Support for DE Unemployment Benefit Service administrative and staff training systems development Segal, Quince and Wicksteed Encouraging Small Business start-up and growth Ms. Jeanette Taylor Human Resource Development Mr. M. Willmer (Manchester Business School) Enterprise—DE Contribution
§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list each management or computer consultancy contract extant in the Manpower Services Commission as at 1 January 1987, giving in each case the name of the consultancy firm and the subject of the assignment.
§ Mr. NichollsThe list of management and computer consultancy contracts extant as at 1 January 1987 is as follows:
Management consultancy projects: 1 January 1987 Consultants Subject of assignment Jones, Iang, Wootton Feasibility study on untying MSC from Property Services Agency Central Unit of Purchasing (Her Majesty's Treasury consultant) Provide advice about purchasing arrangements within MSC PIEDA To improve Local Labour Market operations in Scotland Centre for Urban and Regional Industrial Development (University of Manchester) Manchester Labour Market Consultancy Project
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2. Computer consultancy projects Consultants Subject of assignment 1. P. E. Consulting Services to study current and future needs of Sheltered Employment Branch 2. C. J. Makeson a study to examine MSC's proposals for, and design of a Network Terminal Protocol 3. COMSHARE to provide MSC Senior Management with on line access to screen based reports of corporate information 4. Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) to examine the PLECTRUM computer system, evaluate errors and security procedures
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Consultants Subject of assignment 5. A. J. Aykroyd a consultant to assist with the development of the "Master Modeller" software package 6. Coopers and Lybrand to advise the Director of the MSC on the levels of investment the Commission should make in Information Technology 7. P. A. Computer and Telecommunications to assist MSC in the introduction of Office Technology in Head Office 8. Arthur Young to assist MSC in deciding whether data sharing is applicable in the MSC environment 9. P. E. Consulting Services to produce options and recommendations for stand alone Office Technology systems 10. Hoskyns Group to study the options for the continuing support of the TOPS and SPECTRUM systems 11. Mr. Boothroyd to monitor the progress of the introduction of Office Technology for senior management and Special Measures Division 12. Concurrent Computer Corporation Ltd. to test the workload capacity of the SUPERVACS system 13. Arthur Young a consultant to provide technical support in information engineering concepts and methods 14. CCTA Consultant a feasibility study into the expansion of the BACIE database 15. CCTA Consultant to examine MSC's use of automated software development tools and to make recommendations for future use 16. Mr. Harrison to produce a distance learning package for SUPERVACS operators 17. Mr. Boothroyd to provide advice to Head of Computing on proposed Office Technology development 18. CCTA to establish the effectiveness of control, management and working methods employed on the FMAS project 19. CCTA to establish the user requirements, system specification and business case for Central Research Information System 20. Mr. Humphries a consultant to provide advice about the Training Access Point project 21. ICL a consultant to provide advice about the implementation of a free text multi user database 22. CAP Industry Ltd. to provide quality assurance for the SUPERVACS project 23. CCTA to provide contingency plans to support the SUPERVACS system
Consultants Subject of assignment 24. Compsoft a consultant to provide advice about computerisation of the Staff Deployment Survey 25. South Yorkshire Micro-systems Centre to develop a database and provide training for the RESTART project 26. Comshare additional development work on providing information to MSC senior management 27. P. A. Consultants a consultancy to provide a training course for the implementation of the Office Technology Systems 28. CCTA to carry out further work on the Central Research Information System 29. CCTA Consultant to carry out a Post Implementation Review of the 'VETG' reorganisation project 30. Xentec to assist in the running of the SPECTRUM system 31. J. Westgate (Consultants) Ltd. to assist with the implementation of Network Terminal Protocol 32. CAP to look into the feasibility on implementing a Terminal Protocol on an Open Systems interconnection conforming network 33. Xentec to assist in the maintenance of the SPECTRUM system 34. C. Makemson to provide Quality Assurance for the various outputs from MSC's Virtual Terminal Protocol Project 35. Sherringtom Software Ltd. to provide programmers for work on the TOPS MINIS Project 36. CCTA Consultant to establish the requirements for the display of vacancies on ORACLE