To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people work in his Department’s customer insight team; and what the (a) remit and (b) objectives of the team are. (177971)

The remit of the newly created customer insight function is to act as a centre of excellence, providing professional support and challenge and building organisational capability to ensure the customer is placed at the heart of the Department’s service transformation programme.

The team operates a flexible resource model, consisting of a small core team (currently 11 people) with technical customer insight knowledge and expertise. The core team is supplemented by project resource with the necessary business knowledge to deliver against the following objectives:

to generate a deep knowledge and understanding of our customers—to inform the design, development and delivery of policies and services;

to build organisational capability across the Department to generate and apply customer insight; and

to challenge and influence attitudes and behaviours—to promote a culture that puts our customers at the heart of everything we do.