HC Deb 22 November 2001 vol 375 cc445-6W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the cost of the improved telephone call centre services referred to on page five of his Department's report 2000. [14094]

Mr. Nicholas Brown

Over the last year and a half we have introduced a new telephone-based service for our employer customers—Employer Direct. Eleven Employer Direct sites are now operational throughout the UK. The sites will be gradually linked together to enable employers anywhere in Great Britain to use a single telephone number for notifying their vacancies to Jobcentres, providing instantaneous display on our Jobpoints and Employment Service managed internet sites. We expect the service to be completed and formally launched towards the end of the financial year.

Employer Direct is part of the overall investment in modernisation and service improvement by the Employment Service. The different elements are all interdependent and it is not therefore possible to separate the cost of Employer Direct. The modernization programme is being delivered under an eight-year contract, the first phase of which is costing £470 millions over the first five years.