Written question asked by David Ruffley (Conservative) on Monday, 15 October 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 17 October 2007. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Monday, 29 October 2007 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Pensions: Telephone Services

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many calls made to the Pension Service in the East of England (a) met an engaged tone, (b) were received and (c) were handled by an adviser in each year since 1997, broken down by call centre; and what area within the East of England is served by each call centre.

Answer: Prior to 2002 the Benefits Agency was responsible for the delivery of benefits and services for pensioners. From April 2002, this became the sole responsibility of the Pension Service.The Pension Service started reporting telephony management information from August 2003.The information has been placed in the Library.In 2003-04 the Pension Service customer base was split into regions, the then East of England region was served exclusively by Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Norwich Baltic and Norwich Kingfisher pension centres.Since 2003-04 The Pension Service has reduced the number of pension centres and work is no longer managed in regions. Telephone calls from the East of England region are now handled by Burnley Pension Centre which also takes customers in the North West. It is not, therefore, possible to report East of England calls separately within the data held by The Pension Service.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 465 c773W; 159208
Session: 2006-07
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP 07/2208
Monday, 29 October 2007
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects: Pensions Pension Service Telephone services East of England
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk