§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the current shortfall in established information technology staff, consultant and contractor support posts within his Department; and if he will list the posts by grade indicating for each post how long it has been vacant and when it is expected to be filled. [37485]
§ Angela EagleFor DETR Central, there are currently no IT posts which are unfilled, this is primarily because the merger of DOE and DOT has enabled some economies of scale in IT staff.
Most of the work involved in the development of new information systems is undertaken by commissioning IT consultancy services. We are beginning to see some signs of the industry having some difficulty in responding to the demand.
The Department's Agencies report two vacancies in total. The Vehicle Inspectorate have had one Executive Officer (EO) vacancy for three months which will be filled in May. The Planning Inspectorate have had one EO vacancy for two months which will be filled in June.