§ Mr. ToddTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list each of the functions relating to the payroll for which his Department is responsible, indicating the management systems purchased, all subcontractors 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. [10742]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Department and its agencies are responsible for collating and processing payments to staff including basic pay, sick pay and payments for excess hours worked, and so on. The Department performs this function for staff in the core Department, the Pesticides Safety Directorate, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. The Department's other agencies—the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the Meat Hygiene Service, the Central Science Laboratory and the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency—are responsible for their own payroll functions.
The Department and its agencies use the payroll services contractor, Chessington Computer Services Ltd., which is responsible for making the actual payments and issuing payment advice to staff.
The Department and its agencies use the Chessington Computer Services management system known as SPIRE—standard payroll input and retrieval. In addition, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science operates a small payroll system for about 30 locally paid industrial staff. There were no extra costs associated with this system in 1996–97.
The estimated total cost of the Department's, including agencies, payroll systems and processes in 1996–97 was £930,400. This figure does not include costs for the Fanning and Rural Conservation Agency, which was established on 1 April 1997.