§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what consideration has been given to market testing of the services provided by the Court Service agency; and if he will make a statement. [31553]
§ Mr. StreeterThe question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.
Letter from Michael Huebner to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 13 June 1996:
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department has asked me to reply to your Question about market testing of services provided by the Court Service.
Since the establishment of the Court Service as an Executive Agency on 2 April 1995, no further consideration has been given to market testing its services. Most of the ancillary services it uses such as cleaning, catering, judges' car hire, security and maintenance are already contracted out. Other support services such as IT, Internal Audit and Pay were market tested before the Court Service became an Agency.Statutory constraint and the fact that much of the Court Service's work is in support of the judiciary means that the scope for further market testing is very limited. Consideration is, however, being given to involving the private sector through partnership schemes under the Private Finance Initiative.