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Departmental Responsibilities

Answer

All projects/programmes within DWP are subject to a formal monitoring and governance process. However, within this monitoring/governance process, there are two levels.1. Monitoring by Investment Committee/Change Delivery Committee (CDC)"Projects which form part of the CDC Portfolio are projects/programmes where they require:""a. an up-front investment cost of over £25 million and/or,""b. requires a commitment of steady state ongoing costs in excess of £10 million per annum (DEL Admin/DEL Programme/or AME); and/or,""c. an Office of Government Commerce Risk Potential Assessment Score of 41 points or over; and/or""d. make a significant contribution to the Department's objectives (this is taken to include a close alignment with a ministerial objective, a public sector agreement target or a target set by the centre of Government for the Department as a whole)."2. Projects Managed by Business Unit Governance Boards"These are still subjected to a formal process but are projects which fall outside the scope of CDC because they have lower financial investment."The majority of the projects/programmes covered in this response are monitored and managed within the CDC Portfolio, and are therefore within the £25 million to £50 million range. However, for some IS-IT projects, we have already collected this data and these have also been included.For the majority of projects managed by business units (£1 million to £25 million) we are unable to provide details due to the disproportionate cost associated with obtaining these details.When assessing the costs of the projects to be included, the 'investment (i.e. one-off)' costs of the project/programme have been used. Costs of running the solutions implemented by the projects and programmes are not included as in the vast majority of cases they are more than compensated for by the financial benefits they generate.

Project	(i) Purpose	(ii) Expected completion date
Document Repository Service¹	This project seeks to support the Department's modernisation programmes through the provision of a document repository to store digitised images of documents received from customers (letters, faxes, e-mails etc.), cutting down paper in the organisation	March 2009
On Time Solution	Provide a range of improved information services to DWP businesses, including improved quicker management information, fraud and error intervention and analysis	March 2011
Provider Referrals and Payment Project	Deploy an IT system to automate and e-enable transactions between Jobcentre Plus and training providers	June 2010
Local Services Integration Programme	To provide local services with an IT solution that supports the end to end process	December 2011
Government Connect	To roll out a secure data network connecting Government and local authorities, including secure file transfer, e-mail and web-browser capability	March 2011
Method of Payment Reform	MPRP will develop modern, electronic, secure and efficient methods of payments for customers who require payment by an alternate means other than direct payment to bank accounts.	March 2011
Tell Us Once	TUO is a major cross Government initiative, led by DWP, to transform the way in which people can tell Government (central and local) about changes to their circumstances	April 2009
Data Centre Strategy	The project is addressing the ongoing continued threat of business service continuity at Washington Data Centre with a replacement strategy to be complete by the end of 2010	2010
Lone Parent Obligations	LPO is part of welfare reform and intends increasing the lone parent employment rate. Currently lone parents are not required to seek employment until their youngest child reaches 16. Under new proposals to be phased in (starting with youngest child aged 12), lone parents will no longer be entitled to income support solely for being a lone parent if their youngest child is above seven. In the last year before entitlement ceases, work-focused interviews will take place to encourage lone parents to take up training opportunities, leading to employment	February 2011
Provider Led Pathways to Work (PL Pathways)	Central to the welfare reform agenda, this project will contract the private and voluntary sector to provide additional help and support for all but the most severely ill or disabled incapacity benefit customers gaining employment. Additional help will be provided through additional mandatory monthly work-focused interviews and tailored, job-focused support, including help to manage customer's health condition, especially in relation to work	April 2008
Jobseekers Regime and Flexible New Deal	This programme will replace and streamline the current new deal programmes and will concentrate on tackling the challenging problems of those who remain unemployed despite a strong economy and historically low unemployment. The programme will include provision of obtaining skills and mandatory work experience for customers	October 2010
Periodicity and Payday	This project forms part of the Working Age (WA) Benefit Simplification Programme to align and extend payment periods for all WA benefits on an incremental basis so that they would over time be paid on a fortnightly basis, wholly in arrears. A single payday will be assigned to each individual, regardless of the benefits they receive	July 2009
¹ Document Repository System: The date shown for the expected completion date (March 2009) is the End Project Review (EPR) date. A completion date of November 2008 has been previously quoted; this refers to the 1st ““Go Live Date”” which was delivered to the original planned deadline.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

483 c983-6W; 226196

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Departmental responsibilities Department for Work and Pensions

Link

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