§ Mr. ToddTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list each of the functions relating to payment for goods or services supplied 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. [12563]
§ Dr. David ClarkFor this purpose, I have responsibility for the Cabinet Office, including the Prime Minister's Office and the Office of Public Service and its agencies, and the Central Office of Information.
In my Department the functions relating to the payment of goods and services are generally performed by integrated accounting services supplied either by a bureau or by in-house development, using either bespoke or package accounting software.
During the year ending March 1997 the functions of the Cabinet Office, core OPS and the Civil Service College were supplied by the Chessington computer centre. Other arrangements were as follows:
Agency COI software package Computer Associates SAFE software package Tetra GCDA software package arrangement with SAFE CCTA software package Systems Union TBA bespoke system supported by the Unisys PACE bureau service supplied by the DOE Although there were no specific sub-contractual arrangements the COI system is run on hardware supplied and maintained by Hewlett Packard and SAFE has a similar contract with Connectivity Plus. CCTA has a maintenance contract with Touchstone Computers and a management arrangement with Chessington Computer Services.
The total costs of these systems and services during the year ending March 1997 was £334,093, excluding VAT. However, the Cabinet Office, core OPS and the Civil 653W Service College have now replaced the Chessington bureaux service with new package software supplied by Systems Union.