§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library a list of the projects on which his Department employed external consultants in each of the last six years. [152844]
§ Maria EagleThe information requested for each of the last six years for all projects is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The following table provides a list of current modernisation projects that have employed external consultants. It should be noted that project details may alter as they pass through the project lifecycle.
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Current DWP Modernisation Projects employing External Consultants Project name Brief description of the project Customer Information System The Project will deliver a database of key customer information to be shared across DWP. The database will complement information currently available in the Department's key customer information systems, i.e. Personal Details Computer System and Departmental Central Index, and become their replacement. The Project will use cost-eflective modern technology with minimum impact on the existing systems. Managing Core Systems Estate The objective of this project is to undertake, and where appropriate plan the activities necessary to maximise the effectiveness of the legacy systems in future. Working Age IS/IT Strategy Programme (formally IT Development Programme) This programme made up of a series of individual protects, three of which are: Better Off Calculator—This project will support the Government's focus on getting people back into work by illustrating how they would be better off working. It will be available to Jobcenter Plus staff, other DWP users and to citizens as a self-service package. Assessment Engine—The Assessment Engine will automate (as fully as possible) the assessment of income support and other benefits. Entitlement Management—This will increase the level of automation of the entitlement management processes reducing or eliminating the need for clerical intervention. Disability and Carers Service Change Programme This is an over-arching change programme that brings together a range of infrastructure projects, covering process, IT and telephony changes, into a single coherent programme. The programme will design and deliver changes to business, processes and Information Technology (IT) and support ongoing changes to the business organisation and telephony to reflect the emerging DCS Business Model. Note: This list is based on the best possible match between information from our systems to monitor DWP Modernisation projects and separate systems to monitor all use of consultancy across DWP. The list is not complete because a list of all projects is not available and differences in recording the names of projects in the different systems makes matching between them difficult.