NEXT STEPS INITIATIVE (Hansard, 25 July 1988)

§ The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Belstead)

Following the announcement of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister on 18th February, the project manager and his team have been working on the implementation of this inititative.

The purpose of Next Steps is to improve management in the Civil Service. The main element is the establishment of individual executive agencies to carry out executive functions. Twelve initial candidates were listed in February and a further 17 candidates have since been announced, including the DHSS Social Security operations. In total, these 29 activities^* cover over 170,000 people.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport is today announcing that he is establishing the vehicle inspectorate within his department as the first executive agency, with effect from 1st August 1988. We expect that the next will be the companies registration office, DHSS resettlement units, and the employment service. Work on the other candidates is progressing well and at the same time departments are considering with the project manager the rest of their operations in line with the Government's acceptance of the recommendation that to the greatest extent practicable the executive functions of Government should be carried out by agencies.

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Establishing agencies is only part of the task. The project manager has drawn up an action plan in conjunction with departments aimed at reorienting training and career management so that staff are properly trained and experienced in the management of the delivery of services. At the same time attention is being paid to the scope for giving greater personal responsibility to managers throughout the service, including the scope for increased financial flexibilities and more local responsibilities in pay and personnel matters.

I shall make a further report to the House before the end of this calendar year.

^*Business Statistics Office
Civil Service College
Civil Service Occupational Health Service
Companies Registration Office
Defence non-nuclear research establishments
Department of Registers for Scotland
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Directorate
Driver Testing and Training
Employment Service
Export Services, DTI
Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate
Historic Royal Palaces
HMSO
Insolvency Service, DTI
Laboratory of Government Chemist
Meteorological Office
National Physical Laboratory
National Weights and Measures Laboratory
Passport Department
Patent Office
QEII Conference Centre
Radiocommunications Division, DTI
Regional Offices, DTI
Resettlement Units
Royal Parks
Social Security operations
Vehicle Component Approval Division, DTp
Vehicle Inspectorate
Warren Springs Laboratory