§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many post offices have had the new Benefits Agency/POCL system installed to date; how many remain to have the system installed; how many have had the system installed in each week throughout the period of installation to date; and how many will have the system installed in each remaining week of the implementation period. [73031]
§ Mr. Ian McCartneyThe Post Office tell me that at present 204 post offices have been automated and are paying Child Benefit by Payment Card as part of a limited trial of the new Benefits Agency/Post Office Counters system; 18,610 post offices remain to have the system installed; the system was installed in the 204 post offices in the trial in 1997 at the rate of 20 offices per week; and national roll-out of the system to every post office, which will only commence once final acceptance trials have been completed, is scheduled to take place at a rate of some 300 post offices a week.