HC Deb 16 June 2003 vol 407 cc84-5W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland(a) how many and (b) what grades of officials are responsible for the monitoring of progress towards the public service agreement targets of the Department. [109469]

Mr. Paul Murphy

The Northern Ireland Office has four Public Service Agreement targets, the delivery of which is the responsibility of Directors at SCS level. Monitoring is carried out by three Grade As, one Grade B1 and one Grade B2, as part of their normal duties.

As from 1 April 2003, progress reports are available on the web site www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/performance/nio.cfm. Within the Northern Ireland Administration progress towards the targets is monitored by officials as part of their work. The information requested on the precise staff numbers and grades is not readily available and could be obtainable only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps the Department has taken to publicise its Public Service Agreement targets; and at what cost to public funds. [114446]

Mr. Paul Murphy

The Public Service Agreement targets for the 11 Departments of the Northern Ireland administration were published in 'Building on Progress—Priorities and Plans 2003–2006'. A copy of this document was placed in the House of Commons Library on 11 December 2002. This document is also available on the Programme for Government web-site (www.pfgni.gov.uk). The cost of printing the document amounted to —6,837.

The Public Service Agreement targets for the Northern Ireland Office were published in the PSA White Paper Command 5571 and were placed on the HMT website. The Department also made them available on the NIO website. Reporting on the performance on the targets is made available to the public via the Treasury website www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/performance/nio.cfm, the Autumn Performance Report and as part of the information contained in the NIO Departmental Report.

The web-based publication of the PSA target forms a small section in each of these comprehensive sources of information, and can be viewed at no cost to public funds.

The cost of printing the Departmental Report amounted to —5,130.00.