Information on IPSA's operational performance

Request

  1. Information held relating to the time taken for IPSA to answer telephone calls from Members of Parliament and their staff.

  2. Information, if held, on how many calls go unanswered - e.g. the calling party gives up on holding and terminates the call.

  3. Copies of the guidance documents provided for senior management staff at IPSA for their expenses claims.

  4. Information on the computer system, if any, which senior staff at IPSA use to claim their expenses.

  5. Average time taken to re-imburse senior management expense claims at IPSA.

  6. How many staff are employed to answer telephone enquiries / email enquiries.

  7. How many complaints have been received each month for the past 3 months relating to IPSA's slow response to emails or failure to respond to emails.

  8. Copy of IPSA's complaints handling procedure / policy.


Response

I can confirm that IPSA holds information that falls within the description specified in your request. 

In your first two questions you requested information relating to the number of calls that go unanswered and the time taken for IPSA to answer telephone calls from Members of Parliament and their staff. You also requested information on the number of staff employed to answer telephone and email enquiries. 

Core IPSA Phone Team

The tables on the next page outline the average daily waiting times experienced by MPs and their staff when phoning IPSA and selecting “Option 1” (i.e. with a query to be handled by the core IPSA Information team) between 24 August (1) and the end of September: 

Info line calls received23rd Sept24th Sept27th Sept28th Sept29th Sept30th Sept1st Oct
Calls unanswered45143628686232
Average waiting time09:3002:3305:5809:1312:3015:5206:34

Info line calls received14th Sept15th Sept16th Sept17th Sept20th Sept21st Sept22nd Sept
Calls unanswered118402220291625
Average Waiting time14:5305:4204:4806:4507:2502:0204:50

Info line calls received24th Aug25th Aug26th Aug27th Aug31st Aug1st Sept2nd Sept
Calls unanswered35311611645444
Average Waiting time07:0005:0403:1903:4612:3011:2407:1

The Core IPSA Information Line Team at present consists of five members of staff.

Calyx Phone Team

The table below outlines the average waiting times experienced by MPs and their staff when phoning IPSA and selecting “Option 2” (i.e. with a query to be handled by the Calyx Helpdesk) in August and September(2):

MonthCalls unansweredCalls handled within 20sCalls handled within 60sCalls handled outside 60s
August22322330
September4238240

We have only recently begun to produce daily reports on the calls handled by Calyx.  These are set out on the following page:

Calyx calls received22nd Sept23rd Sept24th Sept27th Sept28th Sept29th Sept30th Sept
Calls unanswered0102120
Average Waiting time01:1903:0701:1201:4103:0001:3403:55

Three to four members of staff are currently employed on the Calyx helpdesk which deals with enquiries from MPs and their staff.

Payroll Phone Team

The tables below outline the average daily waiting times experienced by MPs and their staff when phoning IPSA and selecting “Option 3” (i.e. with a payroll query) between 7 September(3) and the end of September: 

Payroll calls received22nd Sept23rd Sept24th Sept27th Sept28th Sept29th Sept30th Sept
Calls unanswered0100027
Average Waiting time00:0700:1000:1300:1100:0500:0801:12

Payroll calls received7th Sept8th Sept9th Sept10th Sept
Calls unanswered1314
Average waiting time01:1101:3600:5600:08

Four members of IPSA staff currently deal with payroll queries from MPs and their staff in addition to their routine payroll duties.

Written Correspondence Team

IPSA currently employs four members of staff to handle written queries from MPs and their staff on a full-time basis.  In practice, queries are often passed to other teams for response depending on the subject matter.

In questions three, four and five you requested information relating to expense claims by IPSA staff. Please find attached a copy of the IPSA Expenses: Policy and Procedures document. The average time taken to reimburse senior management expense claims is fourteen days. IPSA staff claim reimbursement for any expenses incurred by completing an excel claim form electronically. This claim form must then be authorised and signed off by line-management. 

In your final two questions you requested information on IPSA’s complaints handling procedure and the number of complaints received each month for the past three months relating to IPSA’s slow response to emails.

IPSA is currently finalising its formal complaints procedure. To date, any complaints received in writing addressed to either the Chief Executive or the Director of Operations at IPSA, and to the Chair of the IPSA Board, have been handled as formal complaints. Each of these complaints has been investigated and a full written response has been provided.

A search through our correspondence shows the following:

MonthNumber of complaints received relating to time taken to respond to emails
June 20102
July 20103
August 20101

(1) The point at which our call handling arrangements were first substantively changed to allow for a wider range of IT related queries to be dealt with by the Calyx helpdesk (“Option 2”).

(2) These statistics have been provided by Calyx which is why they report on slightly different criteria than those which IPSA uses for the Core and Payroll phone teams.

(3) The point at which our call handling arrangements were further updated to allow MPs and their staff to select a payroll option (“Option 3”) to expedite the handling of their calls.

Ref:
FOI079
Disclosure:
7 October 2010
Categories:
IPSA - FINANCIALIPSA - STAFFIPSA - OPERATIONS
Exemptions Applied:
None