Tony WrightTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will list the performance targets that his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are required to meet, apart from those set out in the public service agreements for 1999 to 2002 and 2001 to 2004; and if he will specify for each target(a) who sets it and (b) who monitors achievement against it. [60535]
§ Mr. AlexanderThe Cabinet Office has no performance targets other than those public service agreements (PSA) agreed as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review and listed in document Cm 4181—Public Service Agreements 1999–2002. Some of these targets were subsumed into new public service agreements, agreed as part of the Spending Review 2000, and are listed in document Cm 5119. Copies of both documents are held in the House of Commons Library.
The Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA), which is an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, and the Central Office of Information (COI), which is an executive agency and separate Government department, both report through the Cabinet Office.
GCDA
The strategic performance targets for GCDA are published annually in the agency's annual report and accounts. Copies of these are held in the House of Commons Library, or can be accessed via the GCDA website.
Key performance targets for GCDA are set annually by the Minister when he approves the agency's corporate and business plans. These were announced on 24 May 2002, Official Report, column 677W.
The chief executive is directly responsible to the Minister for ensuring that the agency achieves its performance target. Quarterly performance reports are submitted to the Minister via the Agencies Unit of the Cabinet Office, and the Permanent Secretary.
COI
Details of performance targets for COI are listed in the COI's annual reports and accounts. Copies of these are held in the House of Commons Library, or can be accessed via the COI website.
Targets are formulated by the COI chief executive, submitted for approval by the Minister, and notified to Parliament.
The five-year corporate plan sets out the COI's main strategic objectives and the means of progressing towards them. This is rolled forward and updated each year by means of a corporate plan and annual business plan. These plans are commercially sensitive and are not published. However, published targets for 2001–02 were announced on 3 May 2001. Targets for the period 2002–03 will be announced shortly.
142WThe chief executive is directly accountable to the Minister for ensuring that the agency achieves its performance targets. Quarterly performance reports are submitted to the Minister via the Agencies Unit, and the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office.
The achievement against targets is audited by the National Audit Office as part of its audit of COI's annual report and accounts.
None of the non-departmental public bodies are executive; therefore they are included within the main departmental targets.