§ Mr. LeightonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many measures of performance are contained in the current year's annual report; and how many there were in last year's; whether any measures of performance have been enhanced or dropped as a result of a review of performance indicators; and whether the previous year's targets have been met.
Mr. JacksonMy Department now measures performance through labour market outcomes and end products rather levels of activity as in last year's public expenditure White Paper. Measures of performance in the two documents are therefore not comparable.
For the Employment Service (ES), last year's public expenditure White Paper set out levels of activity in advance of its becoming a "next steps" agency. Performance targets to which ES has been working are set out in the 1990–91 annual performance agreement which was published in April 1990. The chief executive of the ES will report to my right hon. and learned Friend on ES achievements and use of resources at the end of the financial year. The report will be published in the summer. Discussions on the targets for the 1991–92 annual performance agreement are well advanced and I intend to place a copy in the Library by the beginning of April.
Programmes administered through training and enterprise councils (TECs) will be increasingly measured by the achievement of outputs rather than simply activity. This is in line with the move to output related funding for TECs. The TEC network will be fully established by September 1991.
367WPerformance measures for the Health and Safety Executive and ACAS are largely unchanged from last year and overall are being met.
The estimated performance for 1990–91 is shown in the tables in my departmental report, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.