Rate Collection Agency

HC Deb 22 June 1995 vol 262 cc409-10W

Mr. Butler

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the future of the Rate Collection Agency. [30937]

Mr. Moss

KPMG Management Consulting was commissioned to undertake an evaluation of the performance of the Rate Collection Agency and a review of the prior options of abolition, privatisation or contractorisation of the agency or the market testing of its functions. They concluded thatthe RCA is an effective and efficient organisation, and that Agency status has acted as a catalyst to improvement in performance through the greater clarity of objectives and responsibilities which it has engendered; the delivery of the RCA functions by the private sector is feasible, and that the most appropriate way of ensuring the best value for money solution is to market test the Agency's functions.

The Government have decided to accept the KPMG recommendations that the agency's functions should be market tested. In the meantime, the status of the agency has been confirmed until the results of the market test are implemented. A revised framework document for the agency is currently being prepared.

Copies of the KPMG report are being placed in the Library.