§ Mr. ToddTo ask the Attorney-General if he will list each of the functions relating to the payroll for which his Department is responsible, indicating the management systems purchased, all sub-contractors involved in the work, co-operative arrangements with other Departments and the costs of the systems and processes in the last year for which figures are available. [10741]
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe personnel branch of the Treasury Solicitor's Department handles the payroll for that Department and for the legal secretariat to the Law Officers. It calculates the pay entitlement of staff including basic pay, allowances, overtime, voluntary deductions and deductions under court orders. Payments are made by Chessington Computer Services Ltd. which also processes statutory deductions and the deductions of properly authorised trade union subscriptions.
123WSimilar functions are carried out for the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and the Government Property Lawyers by those departments' pay sections and by Chessington.
The standard payroll input and retrieval system—SPIRE—is used.
Payments to Chessington for payroll services and approximate in-house staff costs in the financial year 1996–97 were as follows (in £000):
Chessington In-house costs Treasury Solicitor's Department 20.4 38.2 Legal Secretariat 1.7 1— Crown Prosecution Service 380 415 Serious Fraud Office 20.5 33.1 Government Property Lawyers 6.9 18.9 1 Included in figure for Treasury Solicitor's Department.