§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list for each of her Department's agencies what market testing has been carried out into the services they provide and what were the results. [30112]
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe Teachers' Pensions Agency market tested its teacher pensions payment services in 1994. Three year contracts beginning in April 1995 were awarded to: 121W
- i. The Office of HM Paymaster General (Paymaster Agency)— for the supply of a pensioner payment database;
- ii. The Midland Bank plc—for the supply of banking services to support the payment of pensions; and
- iii. The TPA itself—for the supply of customer services to answer enquiries from individual pensioners.
Responsibility for the Employment Service has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Robert Home to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 21 May 1996:
The Secretary of State has asked me, in the absence of the Chief Executive, to rely to your request for details of the Employment Service (ES) market testing programme.The attached list sets out the ES services so far market tested, and the outcome in each case. Please note that, with the exception of Jobclubs, Employment Rehabilitation Centres and Disability Occupational Psychologists supporting Placing Assessment and Counselling Teams, all entries relate to internal ES corporate support services, rather than external services to clients.I hope this is helpful.
Employment service market tests Market test Date test completed Part 1: Where the work was contracted out Travel Service (contract commenced June 1992 for 3 years with extension to March 1996) May 1992 Materials Management April 1993 Jobclubs (82 in-house wins 6 contracted out as listed below) December 1993 Financial Management Training April 1994 Estates, Maintenance and New Works, Regional Works Consultants (contracts commenced October 1994 for 3 years) September 1994 Field Training: First Aid Training September 1994 Field Training: Management and People Development Northern and North West Regions only (other regions in-house wins) December 1994 Regional Office Support Services Scotland Northern and Wales (other regions in-house wins) December 1994 Personnel Legal Services August 1995 Group Welfare October 1995 Jobclubs (retest) 12 contracted out; 66 in-house wins December 1995 There are also contracts for Employment Rehabilitation course provision with over 400 organisations nationally. Only two contracts are held centrally these being with the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the Royal London Society for the Blind. All additional provision is contracted via ES regions. This test was completed in April 1993.
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Market test Date test completed Part 2: In-house wins IT Mainframe Services (Accounting System) July 1992 Security, Messengers and Typing Services(Sheffield Head Office) December 1993 IT Microcomputer Training (Sheffield Head Office) December 1993 Jobclubs (see also above) 82 In-house wins; 6 contracted out December 1993 Management Training March 1994 Inspection (Fraud) Training March 1994 Business Consultancy Services April 1994 Occupational Psychologists May 1994 Disability Occupational Psychologists supporting Placing Assessment and Counselling Teams and Ability Development Centres May 1994
Market test Date test completed Internal Audit September 1994 London and South East Recruitment Administration September 1994 Field Training (Procedural) September 1994 Field Training (Management and People Development) see above; in-house win in seven regions; two regions contracted out December 1994 Regional Office Support Services see above in-house win in six regions; two regions contracted out December 1994 Field Management Services December 1994 IT Small Systems February 1995 Jobclubs (retest) 66 in-house wins; 12 contracted out October 1995 Part 3: Value for money reviews
The following internal services also formed part of the ES Competing for Quality Programme. They were considered for market testing but ultimately it was concluded in each case that a Value for Money Review was the most appropriate and cost effective way forward.
- Regional Micro User Support Service
- IT Services
- Finance Office Payments