§ Mr. KaufmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will set out for each of the next steps agencies in his Department, whether they have acquired their own headquarters buildings and, if so, at what purchase cost or annual rental; how many support staff they have required which were not required when their operations were within his Department; how many of them publish periodical journals and at what annual cost; how many have fleets of executive cars or single executive cars and at what annual cost; how many have specially designed logos and at what cost; how many have corporate clothing and at what cost; and what is the cost of specially designed and printed corporate stationery.
§ Mr. HagueThe Department of Social Security has six next steps agencies: the Benefits, Contributions, Resettlement, War Pensions, Information Technology Services and Child Support Agencies. Each agency is set demanding annual targets for efficiency and quality of 623W service, and running cost budgets are tightly controlled and subject to specific efficiency savings targets. Direct comparisons between pre and post-agency performance are difficult to make because of change in work loads and the introduction of new work such as that of the -Child Support Agency. It is, however, clear that there have been significant improvements as illustrated, for example, in
Benefits Agency Contributions Agency Resettlement Agency War Pensions Agency Information Technology Services Agency Child Support Agency Headquarters buildings Quarry 1House purchased at a cost of 2£54 million. No.1 Trevelyan Square has an annual rent of 2£485,623 3None 3None The Agency is moving in February to a new building on the Norcross site, built at a cost of 2£12 million 3None 3None Periodical journals £528,000p.a £64,000p.a None £10,000p.a £90,000p.a None Executive car(s) None None None None None None Specially designed logos £11,900 £19,800 None £13,574 Designed in-house at minimal cost £58,750 Corporate clothing 4£4,117,810 4£18,235 None None None None Specially designed and corporate stationery 5£255,377 5£29,204 5£264 5£9,364 5£14,305 5£32,930 1 Quarry House is shared with the NHS executive. 2 There was a good business case for moving to new premises, and the moves will result in long-term savings. 3 The Contributions, Resettlement, Information Technology Services and Child Support Agencies headquarters occupy sites that were part of DSS before the agencies were created. 4 Figure given is total to date. 5 Figure given is expenditure to date in the current financial year.