HC Deb 06 December 2001 vol 376 c514W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will make a statement on the saving from the ACCORD contract for strategic outsourcing of IS and IT services; [18989]

(2) if he will make a statement on the saving arising from his Department's public-private partnership for the support of IT needs. [19260]

Mr. McCartney

The objectives of Strategic Outsourcing are:

To achieve improved value for money for the delivery of current operations and new developments; To facilitate the award of contracts for future allocations of business in support of the Welfare Reform Agenda; To deliver current and future IS/IT services and operations; To develop and manage the migration of existing and new business systems onto a shared systems infrastructure, in line with the Department's IS/IT Strategy.

Strategic Outsourcing therefore has not been undertaken solely on the basis of cash savings. However, estimates over the contract period have shown reduced costs for the outsourcing approach