Universal Credit

Lord McFall of Alcluith Excerpts

Wednesday 21st December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

Yes, my Lords, simplifying the process, the RTI pilots will start in April next year with a group of 300 volunteer software developers, employers and pension providers. In the autumn of next year, we will have integration testing, with a view to having the full migration of everyone from April 2013 to October 2013.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith]

My Lords, can I bring to the Minister’s attention the Cabinet Office document, Major Project Approval and Assurance Guidance? Paragraph C.15 says that the assessors designate projects as either “noteworthy and positive” or “noteworthy and cause for concern”. Under which category does universal credit come? Can the Minister place copies of these designations in the House of Lords Library so that we can trace these issues and save the taxpayer many billions of pounds, as we could have done in the case of HMRC over the past few days?

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, basically our categorisation in the latest plan is that urgent actions are still required. We are tending towards the problems appearing to be manageable with the actions in hand. That is the position that we are in, which will probably be no surprise at this stage in the project.