§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer of 19 December 1994,Official Report, column 881, if he will list the areas of work in his Department which have been reorganised following the Vehicle Inspectorate's total quality initiative; and what assessment he has made of the relationship between these reorganisations and the stress' level and sick absences among employees of his Department.
§ Mr. NorrisThis is an operational matter for the Vehicle Inspectorate. I have asked the chief executive to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Ron Oliver to Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, dated 6 February 1995:
TOTAL QUALITY INITIATIVE IN THE VEHICLE INSPECTORATE
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question regarding reorganisation within the Vehicle Inspectorate following its Total Quality Initiative.
To meet its commitments, the Inspectorate has to keep pace with developments and be able to respond to change. We are currently in the second stage of the Total Quality Initiative (TQI) and we expect it to deliver improvements in efficiency, as well as effectiveness and service. During the course of this financial year, Corrective Action Teams and Continuous Improvement Teams have been working across the Inspectorate. We believe that staff participation and understanding can help in minimising the stress of change and their recommendations as part of the "Teams" have contributed to the reorganisations under way in the Inspectorate's 3 divisions.
The Inspectorate surveyed staff attitude at the start of the TQ process in Autumn 1993. We plan to survey staff attitude again during the 1995/96 financial year and continue to look at staff absence rates to provide us with as full a picture as possible.
If you have any further questions about the Inspectorate's initiatives, please contact me at the above address.