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Departments: Manpower

Volume 458: debated on Tuesday 13 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of Authentication by Interview officers to be employed by his Department in (a) 2009 and (b) 2010. (125948)

The interview officer role will gradually transition to that of interview and enrolment officer from 2009, and staff will be trained accordingly. This is to meet the need for the business additionally to record biometrics from all applicants in readiness for the issuing of second biometric passports and identity cards.

It is expected that there will be a need for more enrolment officers than the roughly 600 interview officers to be employed this year during the implementation of the authentication by interview process. Any additional staff are likely to be required from mid 2009, but it is premature to identify how many this will be as it depends on the date when IPS is ready to start initial biometric enrolment and the rate of increase in volume of customers which will depend on the progressive implementation plan.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Authentication by Interview officers have been recruited; and which company his Department has commissioned to recruit them. (125949)

IPS has recruited 55 interview office staff who have started work and offered a job to a further 539 people. Some are to be full time and others are part time staff. Recruitment was carried out by IPS supported by our recruitment partner Barkers, who assisted with application response handling.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library a copy of the most recent job advertisement for the position of Authentication by Interview officer. (125950)

I confirm that the most recent interview officer job advertisements for the recruitment campaign held in September 2006 will be placed in the Library.