§ Mr. Keith SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information technology difficulties have been identified in the operations of the Rural Payments Agency. [34106]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 7 February 2002]: We have had no insurmountable problems with IT in the run up to and since the formal launch of the RPA in October, though it is true that we have had some of the difficulties that one must expect when bringing two organisations together. In very brief summary these were:
the need to link two networks and e-mail systems in a way which would look seamless to the staff;the need to connect systems based on slightly differing technologies, inherited from MAFF and IB, and to connect each group of people to the other's systems and data;maintaining old technology in the fact of increasing demand at fewer sites;accommodating action to deal with foot and mouth at the same time as building the new agency.However, all of these have been dealt with by some upgrades, and by a good co-operative effort between RPA's staff and those of DEFRA.
Also, action is in hand to provide a unified infrastructural service for the RPA which will supersede the tactical solutions we employed in the short term. Apart from the need to develop a new, more resilient platform for RPA's set of existing operational systems, a key objective is to support a major procurement for the strategic replacement of all the operational claims management systems by the end of 2004.