§ Mr. Eggarasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether a management information and accounting system is in use in his Department; whether the information adduced is received and analysed at ministerial level; whether it is publicly available; and whether any changes are proposed in the coming year.
§ Sir Keith JosephPolicy planning groups within the Department monitor and discuss major policy issues prior to the submission of advice to Ministers.
In addition, the work of all branches is reviewed by the permanent secretary and senior officials through a cycle of annual reports and meetings; the Department is one of six undertaking a review of the control of running costs under the aegis of Sir Derek Rayner; and the Department 568W is developing a system for identifying the staffing and manpower costs of each branch function corresponding to the MINIS system.
I shall shortly be assessing the results of the review of running costs and the latest staffing of functions exercise with a view to considering how they might be developed and what might be published.