§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the performance targets that(a) her Department and (b) its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are required to meet; and if she will specify for each target (i) who sets it and (ii) who monitors achievement against it. [137959]
§ Alun MichaelThe information requested is as follows:
(a) Key performance targets for Defra are agreed as part of the Spending Review and the latest set were published in Spending Review 2002: Public Service Agreements 2003–2006 (Cm 5571). 2.3 Defra's SR2002 Public Service Agreement targets were decided upon following a process of consultation and negotiation 721W involving Ministers, Defra's management board, and all business areas. Final decisions on the selection and number of targets were agreed with HM Treasury. The process observed the need to maintain a degree of continuity between previous Public Service Agreements and departmental priorities.
The Department monitors progress towards achieving all its outstanding Public Service Agreement targets along with HM Treasury and the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit and progress is reported regularly. We provide a full outturn against all of the Department's Public Service Agreement targets in our departmental Report. The most recent was published in May 2003 (Cm 5919). We also provide an outturn of progress in our Autumn Performance Report. The next Report is due to be published in November 2003.
(b) A full list of the Department's NDPBs and Executive Agencies can be found in our departmental Report (Cm 5919).
Where targets have been set for these, details can be found in each Executive Agency's or NDPB's business plan and/or annual report. Details of how to access the websites of the organisations concerned can be found in Annex C of the departmental Report. The Department monitors achievement against appropriate targets, through, amongst other things, meetings between the Secretary of State, the relevant Minister, Permanent Secretary and/or the Chief Executive.