§ Mr. Thurnhamasked the Secretary of State for Employment what estimated financial benefits have been achieved in his Department in 1984–85 by the financial management initiative system.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonIn line with the two White Papers on financial management in Government Departments — Cmnd. 9058 of September 1983 and Cmnd. 9297 of July 1984—and the published reports on implementation in my Department, considerable progress is being made in introducing new systems to meet the objectives of the financial management initiative.
Much has already been done to increase cost-consciousness with top management review bodies supervising and strengthening efforts to improve efficiency and economy throughout the Department of Employment group. Comparing 1983–84 and 1984–85, the unemployment benefit service, for example, is increasing productivity with the ratio of numbers on its register to staff improving from 114:1 to 122:1; and output per staff unit in the employment division of the Manpower Services Commission is rising from 534 job placings to 615. There are similar improvements in vacancies notified, training applications taken and employment rehabilitation centre throughput. The net cost per person no longer unemployed by virtue of various employment measures has also fallen significantly. The Department of Employment group expects to have reduced permanent staffing by some 2,000 posts between April 1984 and April 1985 with roughly equal numbers coming from the Manpower Services Commission and the rest of the group.
For the future, the new systems will be used increasingly both to control costs better and to set challenging, yet practical, targets for achieving better value for money from the resources at our disposal.