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Written question asked by Danny Alexander (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 29 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 6 December 2005. It was answered by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Monday, 12 December 2005 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Customer Management Systems

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average number of days taken (a) to call back and (b) from call back to interview date for each Customer Management System centre was in the last period for which figures are available.
Answer

[holding answer 6 December 2005]: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 12 December 2005:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning what the average number of days taken is (a) to call back and (b) from call back to interview date for each Customer Management System centre. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""Our aim is to call customers back within 24 hours of the inbound call. The latest data we have available is for week ending 25 November 2005 where the average across all contact centres is 1.6 days. The call back data for each CMS contact centre operating call-backs for the same period is listed in the table below."

Week ending 25 November 2005
Contact Centre Time taken to call customer (days ahead or day ahead)
Blackburn 2
Bootle 4
Bridgend 1
Coventry 3
Derby 1
Dundee 3
Garston 1
Grimsby 1
Halifax Within 1
Hastings 1
Lincoln 1
Marton Mere 3
Middlesbrough 1
Newcastle 3
Paisley 1
Pembroke Dock 2
Poole 2
Sheffield 1
Taunton 3
Telford 1
Torquay Within 1

"We have an internal standard to complete work-focused interviews within 4 days of initial contact with the customer. Twelve of our centres captured data from 273 Local Service Outlets over a sample period from 16th September 2005 to 25th November 2005 on the waiting times for these interviews. This information is in the table."

Week ending Average waiting time in days
16 September 2005 7.2
23 September 2005 7.7
30 September 2005 8.0
7 October 2005 7.8
14 October 2005 8.5
21 October 2005 8.0
28 October 2005 7.6
4 November 2005 7.3
11 November 2005 6.2
18 November 2005 5.0
25 November 2005 5.3

"I hope this is helpful."

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
440 c1759-60W;440 c1759-60W; 34273
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Administration Computers Jobcentres ICT Information Interviews Jobcentre Plus Social security benefits Standards
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk