Lord Campbell of Croyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress they have made towards the implementation in the Department of Transport of the recommendations in the Efficiency Unit's report Improving Management in Government: The Next Steps, and if they will make a statement.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Transport (Lord Brabazon of Tara)My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport is establishing the vehicle inspectorate as an executive agency with effect from 1st August. Copies of the policy and resources framework document, setting out the inspectorate's aims, objectives and responsibilities, have been laid in the Libraries in this House and in the other place.
144WAMr. Ron Oliver, a qualified mechanical engineer who is the present head of the vehicle inspectorate, is being appointed to be its first chief executive. My right honourable friend is delegating clear responsibility for day-to-day management of the inspectorate to him and his management team. Under the policy and resources framework, local management will have enhanced responsibilities in the areas of finance, contracts and personnel management and more scope to develop new business initiatives. They intend to introduce performance incentives and other necessary changes designed to encourage staff to increase efficiency to make more productive use of public assets and thereby improve services to the public. We expect that the scope of local management freedom and responsibilities will grow over time and my right honourable friend will be ready to consider modifications to this policy and resources framework to reflect and encourage that process. In particular, we shall be reviewing the inspectorate's financial regime, in order to find ways of mirroring as closely as possible the financial disciplines of a private sector business.
Publication of the framework document itself represents an enhancement of accountability to Parliament, and the inspectorate will in future publish an annual business plan, as well as its annual report and accounts. In order to ensure that letters to noble Lords and Hon. Members are dealt with as quickly and effectively as possible, they are asked to write directly to the chief executive in the first instance on questions which concern the inspectorate's handling of constituency cases concerning operational matters. Ministers in this Department will continue to deal with questions of policy or with any cases where noble Lords and Hon. Members are dissatisfied with the inspectorate's reply.
The inspectorate is already working to specific unit cost targets agreed with the Treasury for 1988-89. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport has now set the chief executive a further target to improve the cost efficiency of the inspectorate's main activities by 3.7 per cent. over the two-year period from 1st April 1989 to 31st March 1991. These savings will come both from specific efficiency measures and from the development of new initiatives and performance incentives within the executive agency framework.
We are pleased that the vehicle inspectorate is the first executive agency to be established, and we wish the chief executive and his staff every success in achieving their objectives and targets.
The Department of Transport continues to work towards establishing the driver and vehicle licensing directorate as an executive agency. In addition, my right honourable friend has commissioned a feasibility study of establishing the Transport and Road Research Laboratory as an executive agency and has asked the department to develop executive agency proposals for the driver testing and training organisation (which conducts driving tests) and the vehicle and component approvals division (which carries out type approval tests).