HC Deb 02 December 1996 vol 286 cc529-30W
Mr. Robathan

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement about the integrated Army Personnel Centre. [7404]

Mr. Soames

The integrated Army Personnel Centre will open in Kentigern house, Glasgow, as a defence agency of the Ministry of Defence, on 2 December 1996. The aim of the APC is to provide an effective, integrated personnel management and administration service to the Army, in order to maximise its operational capability throughout the spectrum of conflict, from peace through to general war. The APC will have a staff of about 1,100 of whom about 1,000 will be civilians. Some 500 new civilian jobs are being created in Glasgow. Functions will be progressively transferred to the APC from the current dispersed organisation of 19 separate offices, with all the work being performed in Glasgow by 31 March 1998.

The Adjutant General will be the owner of the APC on behalf of the Secretary of State for Defence. His mission is to man the Army effectively and efficiently, with well-motivated men and women, individually trained to meet the requirements of the Army, within allocated resources.

The APC chief executive, a major general, will be required to manage the Army's manpower assets in the most cost-effective manner, to manage officers' and soldiers' careers in a manner that ensures the best return for the Army's investment in individuals, to provide an efficient and effective Army personnel, pay and pension administration service and to meet legitimate demands for information in a cost-effective and timely manner. The chief executive has been set the following key targets to be achieved by March 1998, when the APC is fully operational.

  1. 1. To increase the proportion of Army posts, other than private soldiers or subaltern officers, which are manned to 90 per cent.
  2. 2. To increase the proportion of Army personnel meeting appointment/job specifications posted in-year to 90 per cent.
  3. 3. To increase the in-year percentage of Army personnel given six months' notification of posting—not those posted on short notice operational requirements or following initial training or long career courses—to 50 per cent.
  4. 4. To increase the percentage of change requests authorised and/or accurately processed within five working days of receipt to 90 per cent.
  5. 5. To increase the percentage of due terminal benefits paid by the fifth working day after discharge/retirement or following receipt of the correct authorisation, whichever is the later, to 95 per cent.
  6. 6. To implement and maintain a comprehensive feedback mechanism for the continual measurement of customer satisfaction.
  7. 7. To achieve 23 per cent. reduction in running costs by 31 March 1998.
  8. 8. To identify comparable large organisations in the public and private sectors with a view to benchmarking specific APC activities and performance levels.

I have arranged for copies of the agency's framework document and corporate plan to be place in the Library of the House.