War Pensions Agency (Hansard, 8 December 1999)

§ Mr. Bayley

A Prior Options Review of the administration of the war pensions scheme was recently undertaken to examine whether further improvements in customer service and value for money could be made.

Part of that review involved an evaluation of the performance of the War Pensions Agency since its creation in April 1994. The Evaluation Report has been published today and copies have been placed in the Library. The Report recognises that, after a difficult start because of very high workloads, the management focus provided by agency status helped bring about steadily improving standards of performance over the last five years.

We have now considered the Review Team's recommendations. These take account of a number of detailed submissions from national and local user representative organisations. I am grateful to all those who participated in the review.

The review has recognised that over the past five years the War Pensions Agency has dedicated itself to serving a very special group of people, those who have suffered injury or bereavement in defence of their country. The main conclusions of the review, which I support, are that the War Pensions Agency should remain a Next Steps Agency within the Civil Service responsible, as now, for administering the existing war pensions scheme.

The review recognises the significant improvements in customer service and efficiency which the Agency has achieved since its inception in 1994. These reflect great efforts by the Chief Executive and his staff. The review's recommendations are designed to build on this work and will be supported by the Agency's programme of change which is aimed at improving its decision-making and appeals processes. This will be done through extended use of information technology and closer working with other government departments and voluntary sector bodies.

We will shortly publish a reviewed Framework Document confirming the Agency's responsibilities for the next five years.