Written question asked by Lord Grayling (Conservative) on Monday, 8 October 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 10 October 2007. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Thursday, 25 October 2007 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Pensions: Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many large databases there are at the National Pensions Centre; what each one is used for; and what data are held in each one.

Answer: The Pension Service, including the National Pensions Centre, has access to four primary systems. Each system has an associated database which holds data appropriate to the processing needs of the business.The systems/databases are:"(a) Pension Strategy Computer System (PSCS) which is used for processing state pension and contains data appropriate to the following:""(i) Income Support Computer System (ISCS) which is used for processing pension credit;""(ii) Customer Information System (CIS) which holds a central index of personal details; and""(iii) National Insurance Recording System (NIRS2) which holds national insurance contribution history."

Secondary information