HC Deb 17 July 2002 vol 389 cc388-9W
Dr. Iddon

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how the Wilton Park Executive Agency performed against the targets agreed for 2001–02; and what the agreed targets are for the current year. [71351]

Mr. MacShane

Wilton Park met all four of the agreed targets set for the 2001–02 financial year, for income, cost recovery, the number of conference participants, and cost per head to the FCO overall. Wilton Park's performance in 2001–02 and some of the targets for the current year are shown in the table:

2001–02 targets 2001–02 performance 2002–03 targets
Income (£) 2,963,000 3,210,0000 3,278,000
Cost recovery (percentage) 85.9 87.2 86.1
Number of conference participants 2,400 3,033
Cost to FCO per participant (£) 203 156

Wilton Park's targets have been adjusted from 2002–03 to give greater emphasis to service delivery. Measures for number of conference participants and cost to the FCO per participant have been dropped. Wilton Park's annual targets now work from framework targets for cost recovery (which is to recover all its cash costs ie excluding non-cash costs), quality of conference programmes and standards of service. New measures have been added for 'excellent' ratings awarded respectively for conference programmes and for conference administration. The 2002–03 targets for the two new measures are: `Excellent' ratings awarded for conference programmes: 56 per cent. (an increase of 2 per cent. on the informal target for 2001–02) `Excellent' ratings awarded for conference administration: 89 per cent. (an increase of 1.1 per cent. on the informal target for 2001–02).