Prison Service (Quantum Project) (Hansard, 25 November 1996)

§ Miss Widdecombe

[holding answer 19 November 1996]Responsibility for these matters has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. David Hinchliffe, dated 25 November 1996: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about the Quantum Project: what terms of reference were given; what contractors/consultants have been employed by the Prison Service Information Technology Group and a list of those employed since the start of the Quantum project; the latest estimate of the cost of the project; and what assessment has been made of the likely impact on employment levels in each prison. The terms of reference for the project are: to investigate the feasibility of utilising the UK Government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to provide improved information systems within the Prison Service. This will be done by inviting private sector companies to consider the clerical and information processing functions relating to personnel, finance and inmates as well as the core IT infrastructure and applications. A list of contractor and consultancy firms engaged by the Prison Service IT Group since the setting up of the Prison Service Agency in 1993 is shown in the attached list A. A list of contractor and consultancy firms engaged to work on the Quantum Project since it started is shown in the attached list B. It is not possible to provide an accurate estimate of the cost of the Prison Service Agency Quantum Project until the final scope has been decided. In the same way, I am not in a position to make an assessment of the effect on Prison Service jobs of the implementation of Quantum because the final scope of the project has yet to be decided. I am anticipating making that decision after a study has been undertaken by suppliers during the second quarter of 1997.