§ Mr. KaufmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will set out for each of the next steps agencies in her Department, whether they have acquired their own headquarters buildings and, if so, at what 169W purchase cost or annual rental; how many support staff they have acquired which were not required when their operations were within her Department; how many of them publish periodical journals and at what annual cost; how many have fleets of executive cars or single executive cars and at what annual cost; how many have spoecifially designed logos and at what cost; how many have corporate clothing and at what cost; and what is the cost of specially designed and printed corporate stationery.
§ Mr. ForthThe Department has only one next steps agency, the Teachers Pensions Agency. The operational and managerial matters of the Teachers Pensions Agency are the responsibility of its chief executive, Mrs. Denyse Metcalfe. I have asked her to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Denyse Metcalf to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 23 January 1995:
As Chief Executive of the Teachers' Pensions Agency, I have been asked to let you have information about the Agency as requested in your Question to the Secretary of State for Education about the operation of the Department's Next Steps Agencies.The TPA was launched as an Agency in April 1992 and has continued to occupy premises in Darlington on a site shared with the Department. It has no separate headquarters building. As well as sharing a site with the Department the Agency also obtains most of its support services from the Department under a Service Level Agreement, although it has its own Personnel and Training Section of 5 staff of whom 2 were additional posts in support of delegated freedoms stemming from the Agency's Framework Document.The TPA produces an information sheet which it sends to the employers (approximately 3,500) of the Teachers' Superannuation Scheme members each term. The cost of this publication is £6,000 annually.The Agency has one 'pool' car which is owned by the Agency and used by the Chief Executive and other staff for seminars and visits to employers. The annual cost of the car in 93/94 was £1,900.The Agency has a logo which was produced as a result of an 'in house' competition for which a token amount of £150 was paid to the member of staff who produced it. The Agency has not corporate clothing and the use of a logo on stationery does not result in any increased costs.