§ Mr. CrausbyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what action he is taking to increase the productivity and reduce the running costs of his Department. [103852]
§ Mr. LockDelivering efficient and modern public services is a key part of the Government's agenda for improving productivity. Greater efficiency is being sought therefore within the public sector to ensure that the most effective results are obtained from available resources. The Department's Public Service Agreement (PSA) includes a range of measures for taking this forward, both within the Department and in other public sector bodies.
Those measures which will help raise the Department's own productivity are as follows:
General productivity measures include:
Better Quality Services—to review 60 per cent. of LCD services by March 2003.Sickness absence—to contribute towards a reduction in public sector sickness absence of 20 per cent. by 2001 and 30 per cent. by 2003.Procurement—to achieve an annual 5 per cent. reduction in general procurement expenditure.Specific LCD departmental targets include:To reduce the duration of civil cases by: increasing the proportion of administrative processes dealt with in target time from 92 per cent. to 95 per cent.; reducing the waiting times for asylum appeals at the Immigration Appellate Authorities from 36 to 17 weeks by 2000–01.To reduce the unit cost of civil cases in real terms by: reducing court room over-capacity; reducing unit costs of items of originating process in the civil courts by an average of 3 per cent. per annum; reducing the unit cost of asylum appeals by 3 per cent. per annum.To halve the time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders from 142 to 61 days.566WTo reduce the average number of days taken for cases in magistrates courts from 31 to 29 days by March 2000.To achieve stability in real terms in the cost of legally aided criminal defence services by March 2002.To reduce in real terms the units cost of cases in the Crown court by an average of 3 per cent. per annum.Many of the targets listed are also Key Performance Indicators or supporting targets of the LCD's Court Service Agency.
The Department's gross running costs provision for 1999–2000 to 2001–02 is set out in its PSA. The productivity measures listed will enable the Department to increase the quantity and quality of outputs delivered by its running cost expenditure over this period.