Defence Research Agency (Hansard, 2 July 1992)

§ Mr. Aitken

The targets recently set for the Defence Research Agency in 1992–93 and subsequent years are as follows(a) To keep within budget for 1992–93 and subsequently to meet profit and cash targets as a trading fund; (b) To achieve overall time utilisation of 40 per cent. and utilisation of direct booking staff of 68 per cent. in 1992–93 and to improve these to 48 and 70 per cent. respectively by 1994–95; (c) To reduce administrative and general overhead (AGO) to 25 per cent. of direct costs in 1993–94 and to reduce this progressively to 15 per cent. in 1996–97; (d) To increase the percentage of DRA's turnover formally subject to market testing to at least 50 per cent. by 1996–97. Activities to the value of £25 million to be market-tested in 1992–93; (e) To achieve 60 per cent. of milestones within one month of the due date in 1992–93 and to improve this by 5 per cent. per annum for four years; (f) To achieve an improvement in quality of service in 1992–93 as measured by the management parameters in the customer satisfaction survey as compared with overall satisfaction—81 per cent. of average level of all parameters in 1992–93; (g) By 31 October 1992, to demonstrate the DRA's ability to operate as a trading fund, and (h) By 31 March 1993, to develop a definitive programme for asset rationalisation against which targets will be set in future years.