To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of pay errors the Army expects to encounter when the joint personnel administration goes live. (129987)

[holding answer 26 March 2007]: Data migration for Army personnel has been a challenge due to the sheer volume concerned and the age and diversity of the legacy systems involved. The current estimate is that the proportion of personnel who will experience a variance in basic pay in the first month of transition will be between 0.5 per cent. and 3 per cent. This incorporates Army and RAF reserves, as well as regular Army. For specialist pay the proportion is expected to be between 4 per cent. and 8 per cent. Work between now and the first live pay run in April is expected to result in the variances being at the lower end of the estimates range. In cases of mismatch of either basic pay or specialist pay the individuals affected will be notified by the Army in advance and where necessary local payments will be made to ensure hardship is not an issue. Action will be taken to inform the May pay run.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contingency plans his Department has put in place to deal with any errors made when the Army has its first pay run under the new joint personnel administration in April. (131080)

Contingency planning has included a number of dummy pay runs during April to check and confirm the status of pay accounts ahead of the first live Army pay run. A further supplementary pay run scheduled for 27 April 2007 will be used to address any significant issues identified in the initial pay runs.

An Army team is embedded within the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) to assist with the resolution of issues and their communication. For those serving on operations a fast track process exists to escalate any urgent pay issues directly to the SPVA joint personnel administration operations room. A process is also in place to make emergency payments in cash at unit level if necessary.

The SPVA has developed disaster recovery plans and business continuity plans to mitigate the risk of a full system failure.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions his Department has had with the Treasury regarding the long service advance of pay. (131094)

Ministers and officials in both the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence have regular discussions on a range of matters relating to the terms and conditions of service, including pay and allowances, for service personnel.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made in the roll-out of joint personnel administration to the Army; and if he will make a statement. (128188)

[holding answer 19 March 2007]: Good progress has been made with the successful initial roll-out of Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) to the Army being achieved as planned at the end of March. A number of essential post go-live consolidation and preparation activities are currently under way, to ready the system introduction of self-service users.

As planned, roll-out to self-service users will be phased and will be completed by 31 July. E-learning packages have been provided to self-service users and instructor-led training has been given to unit administration staff. The first JPA pay run for the Army is scheduled for payment at the end of April. The Army is prepared for JPA and has put processes in place to ensure that a service individual or their family will not be placed in difficulty in the event of any teething problems with the large and complex transition to JPA.