§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what were the results of the discussions in January with the Cabinet Office and the NHS Executive about the advertisement of vacancies on the Employment Service website; and if he will make a statement. [86055]
§ Mr. Nicholas Brown[holding answer 9 December 2002]Jobcentre Plus maintains a continuous dialogue with the Department of Health through regular meetings of the Joint Service Development Group. Discussions about the most cost-effective way of establishing an NHS-wide e-recruitment service on the internet, and how that might be linked to and supported by the Jobcentre Plus website, are continuing. The Department of Health is currently assessing responses from potential suppliers to an invitation to tender for this work.
Officials in Jobcentre Plus and the Cabinet Office are working together to improve existing internet-based services for recruitment to the Civil Service. That work is currently focused on identifying the resources needed to do the development work and on identifying an appropriate opportunity in the current programme of improvements to the Jobcentre Plus website to implement the changes required.