§ Mr. Ben ChapmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on arrangements for the delivery of communication and information services to his Department. [126065]
§ Mr. SpellarThe Defence Communication Services Agency (DCSA) was established on 1 April 1998 and is responsible for the end-to-end delivery of communication and information services across Defence. The RAF Signals Engineering Establishment (RAFSEE) was formed in 1982 and became a Defence Agency in November 1994. The DCSA, RAFSEE and a number of non-Agency organisations responsible for aspects of the delivery of communication and information services and supporting activities were brought together to form a single Communication and Information Services and Support (CISS) organisation under the Defence Logistics Organisation on 1 April 2000. In order to strengthen the focus of the overall CISS organisation on service delivery and to reinforce the alignment of the DCSA's responsibility, authority and accountability it has been decided to remove Agency status from the RAFSEE organisation and to expand the DCSA to encompass the entire CISS organisation.
561WThe removal of RAFSEE's Agency status and the expansion of the DCSA to encompass the entire CISS organisation are, of themselves, administrative procedures and will not result in any geographical relocation or redundancies for staff.