§ Mr. Eggarasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list and describe the studies from within or without his Department relating to the effectiveness and efficiency of his Department together with the recommendations and action taken on those recommedations.
§ Mr. HeseltineThe MINIS system enables me to scrutinise annually all parts of my Department. It is supplemented by specific reviews undertaken by a variety of management services and by line management.
My Department has undertaken several exercises as part of the scrutiny programme under the general direction of Sir Derek Rayner. These, too, have led to improvements in efficiency and savings in staff and expenditure. I attach particular importance to the study of methods used to estimate, monitor and control running costs in DOE (Central), following which a comprehensive system of local cost budgeting and a computerised management information system will come into operation in 1983–84.
In the Property Services Agency, about 50 reviews are in progress, including a Rayner study on district works offices.
The Department has also made important contributions to several multi-departmental reviews, particularly the review of support services in research and development and allied scientific establishments which identified substantial savings in staff and costs, including savings at the Department's Building Research Establishment.
Full details of all these studies and the action resulting from them could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Some examples were, however, given in evidence to the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, published in HC 236–II, Session 1981–82, and the reports on some reviews have been published. The MINIS statements are published and are placed in the Library of the House.
As a result of these reviews, I have been able to reduce the number of staff employed by the Department by 25 per cent. since April 1979, without damage to my policy objectives.