Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the Darlington Filestores site will not be included in the re-tendered contract between his Department and Capita Filestores; and what his plans are for the files held at that facility.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The decision for a single storage solution has been driven by the Department’s Business Strategy;
· To increase digitalisation and move to digital by default which will reduce physical storage requirements.
· To reduce DWP estates requirements.
· To reduce costs and provide greater value for money for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish all legal advice provided to his Department on the Document Management and document storage procurement process between Filestores; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions act as the Department’s managing agent for the Document Management and document storage procurement process between filestores.
Where there is a retender of a single supplier contract under which the incumbent supplier is employing staff to provide services, whether under the contract which is being replaced or when exiting the future contract which is currently being procured, it is part of CCS’s standard approach to seek legal advice from the Government Legal Department to consider the terms of the contracts underlying the transfer.
We will not publish the legal advice received as part of this procurement. Any advice that CCS receives from Government Legal Department is subject to legal privilege and is not disclosable, even in a court of law.
Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, under what conditions married women can claim universal credit in their own right.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
Under Universal Credit couples in the same household must make a joint claim. Payment is normally once a month into a bank account nominated by the couple, which could be a joint or an individual account. Where there is financial abuse that is affecting the rest of the family, or other more fundamental problems such as domestic violence, we have the ability to split the payment between partners, allowing each claimant to receive a separate payment.