§ Mr. GarrettTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will set out the cost of the Charterline he has established in the east midlands, the number of calls made on it daily and the number of staff engaged in running it.
§ Mr. David DavisThe cost of setting up the Charterline pilot study was £880,000. The cost of the software system design was £109,000, and planning, project management and evaluation costs were £195,000. These are all one-off rather than on-going costs. At current levels of usage, it would not be necessary to purchase additional equipment to extend Charterline nationally. Operational costs to 3 November 1993 were £340,400. Significant economies of scale could be achieved if Charterline were to be rolled out on a national basis.
611WCharterline has, to date, received over 4,700 calls. IBM, which runs the Charterline service on behalf of the citizens charter unit, has nine trained staff available to answer Charterline calls, of whom three are awaiting calls at any one time.