§ Baroness Rawlingsasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, following its establishment as a Next Steps executive agency in 1992, an evaluation of performance has been carried out for the Public Record Office; and if so, what conclusions were drawn.
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Mackay of Clashfern)An evaluation of the performance of the Public Record Office during its first three years as an executive agency was carried out by the Public Record Office in conjunction with my department and a report was completed in June 1996.
The report concluded that the office had benefited considerably from its move to agency status which had led it to re-evaluate and to clarify its aims and objectives within its statutory role and to focus on improving its performance and on meeting the needs of its users. The office has made notable advances in planning and managing its work and resources and has achieved efficiency gains and service improvements in a period in which its workload was increasing and in which it also successfully undertook a major building programme at its Kew site.
Copies of the evaluation report will be laid in the Libraries of both Houses.