§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his answer of 20 July 2001,Official Report, columns 689–90W, on IT projects, (1) if he will list individual Department of Work and Pensions information technology projects grouped under (a) working age, (b) pensions, (c) children and (d) corporate; and for each of those projects, what is (i) the expected completion date and (ii) the estimated cost; [10466]
(2) if he will give (a) reasons for and (b) a breakdown of, the increase from the planned costs to the current estimated costs for Department for Work and Pensions information technology projects on its (i) pensions, (ii) corporate and (iii) children's programmes. [10467]
§ Mr. McCartneyI refer to my answer of 20 July 2001,Official Report, columns 689–90W. The information technology elements of the Department's modernisation programme are not shown separately from the overall programme costs because contracts have not yet been let for many of the IT projects.
Early estimates have been revised as a result of the 2000 Spending Review settlement which provided additional funding for modernising the Department which enabled it to undertake necessary and more extensive improvements. Additional improvements have therefore come on stream since initial calculations were made and estimates have been revised for Child Support reforms as implementation has progressed.