Public Service Agreements (Hansard, 24 July 2002)

§ Mr. Chope
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans there are to monitor annual progress against long term targets set out in public service agreements. [71614]

§ Mr. Boateng
[holding answer 19 July 20021: Progress against all targets in public service agreements (PSAs) is set out in departmental reports and autumn performance reports. The Government will provide regular web-based reports on all the new PSA targets from next year.

§ Mr. Chope
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what sanctions he will use against Departments which fail to deliver their public service agreements. [71615]

§ Mr. Boateng
[holding answer 19 July 20021: Departments are accountable to the public and Parliament for their performance against their public service agreement targets (PSAs). Performance is also one of a number of factors taken into account during a spending review, where performance can indicate where resources can best be deployed and the need for action and reforms to ensure delivery.

§ Mr. Chope
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer why there is no public service agreement target for Customs and Excise in respect of the illicit market share for oils in Northern Ireland: and if he will make a statement. [71607]

§ John Healey
[holding answer 19 July 20021: As explained in "Measuring Indirect Tax Fraud", published in November 2001, the non-UK duty paid share of the road fuel sector in Northern Ireland is more complex than in the rest of the UK. Because of the long land border with the Republic of Ireland, Customs are unable to distinguish clearly between legitimate cross-border shopping and fraud there in the same way they are able to on the UK mainland.
As a consequence, while the Government have judged it right to set a PSA target for reducing the size of the illicit market for England, Scotland and Wales, it is not yet possible to set a comparable target for Northern Ireland.
The Government are, however, determined to tackle road fuel fraud in Northern Ireland and Customs have, over the last two years, enhanced its enforcement activity by increasing the number of officers tackling oils fraud in Northern Ireland from 25 officers to over 160. This has resulted in the first increase in the volume of UK duty paid fuel delivered into Northern Ireland for over four years.
The Government still consider the level of fraud to be unacceptable and Customs is pursuing, with other agencies and in addition to steps taken on mainland oils fraud, ways in which the impact on oils fraud in Northern Ireland can be increased.