§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many employees formerly employed by the Benefits Agency have left to join the Pensions Service since its creation. [8972]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced on 4 July 2001,Official Report, column 196W that the Pension Service and Jobcentre Plus organisations would come into existence in April 2002.
A co-ordinated approach is being taken to staffing the new organisations in order to ensure business continuity across all parts of the Department for Work and Pensions.
§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what date he received the BFI report on the Benefits Agency which was published on 28 September; and what arrangements he made for the publication of the report on receiving it. [10798]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownWe received the BFI's report on the Benefits Agency on 26 September 2001.
We published the report on 28 September 2001 by placing a copy of the report in the House of Commons Library. In addition, an electronic copy of the report was made available on the BFI website which also advised that hard copies are available from the Department's Library.
To publicise the publication, we issued a press release. As with other BFI reports. copies of this report were distributed to a number of public bodies, local authorities and interested parties who had previously requested copies of BFI reports.