§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the cost of buildings refurbishment carried out by his Department in each of the last four years. [27969]
§ Mr. McCartneyThe cost of buildings refurbishment in DWP for each of the last four years is as follows:
£ 1998–99 6,923,448 1999–2000 9,682,536 2000–01 8,662,522 2001–02 17,613,051 Refurbishment of former DSS offices is the responsibility of Land Securities Trillium as the prime contractor in accordance with their Life Cycle Capital Expenditure programme. This programme is designed to maintain the required accommodation standard within our offices. The cost of this is already accounted for in the contract price that is paid for each building.
The refurbishment costs quoted are for offices in the former ES and include Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder offices from April 2001. The increase in 2001–02 over previous years is accounted for by the commencement of the roll out of Jobcentre Plus.