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Jobcentre Plus: Lost Property

Answer

[holding answer 13 October 2008]: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.Letter from Mel Groves:"The Secretary of State has asked me to respond to your questions asking:""how many reported incidents of missing post from Jobcentre plus clients have been received by Jobcentre plus staff (a) nationally and (b) at the Preston office in the last 12 months.""how many items of missing post sent by jobcentre plus clients to jobcentre plus offices in the latest period for which figures are available have been located.""what searches have been made to recover missing items of sensitive and confidential mail sent by the constituent of the hon. Member for West Lancashire Ms Hilary Thompson to the jobcentre plus office in Preston; what steps he is taking to make system changes to protect clients' data; and what assessment has been made of how Ms Thompson's items were initially lost.""This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as acting Chief Executive.""Information regarding the amount of missing post reported and located is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.""Jobcentre Plus treats customer data seriously and introduced new procedures last year in order to ensure tighter security across the business. The new procedures ensure the utmost safety of our data and enable staff to understand their position and take the most appropriate and correct action.""The postal contracts Jobcentre Plus has in place are designed to provide for mail to be securely delivered to Jobcentre Plus sites. These services are reviewed and tested in order to ensure the service is both secure and effective. Our day to day security measures relating to our post opening procedures include the following:""mail is processed in a separate and secure location designated for DWP mail;""post opening is monitored by CCTV;""there must be two or more employees processing mail; and""there is a signing in/out register for processing staff and recording of valuable items and life documents.""The postal contract enables us to query any missing post and for a thorough search to be performed if necessary.""Given the personal nature of issues about your constituent, Hilary Thompson, my predecessor, Lesley Strathie has written to you separately regarding the issues you have raised. She explained that we have located two of the three items that your constituent reported as missing. However, despite a full investigation by ourselves and Haden, our post opening contractors, including a full office search, we have not been able to locate the third item of post."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

482 c915-6W;482 c914-5W; 225752

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Jobcentres Jobcentre Plus Postal services

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk