§ Mr. HayesTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what targets he has set the Companies House executive agency for 1996–97. [33970]
§ Mr. LangI have set Companies House the following targets:
- to continue to aim to process all documents within five working days, and specifically for 1996–97 to raise the proportion of documents processed within five working days to 95 per cent.;
- to achieve an average monthly compliance rate for accounts registered of 95 per cent. and for annual returns registered of 93 per cent.
- to ensure that a minimum of 90 per cent. of fiches provided to customers are error free;
- to ensure that the percentage of error-free work in current processing is at least 97 per cent.;
- to answer 90 per cent. of incoming telephone calls within six rings (20 seconds);
- to reduce real unit costs by 5 per cent. in 1996–97;
508 - to achieve a 6 per cent. average annual rate of return based on an operating surplus expressed as a percentage of average net assets employed at current values;
In addition, I expect the chief executive of the agency to continue to reply within 10 working days to all letters from Members of Parliament delegated to him for reply.