Next Steps (Hansard, 1 February 1989)

§ Mr. Luce

The next steps initiative is making good progress. The responsible Ministers have now established the first three agencies, and another 30 (plus three in the Northern Ireland Civil Service) have been announced as candidates. These are listed. Together they cover nearly 200,000 people, or about one third of the Civil Service. I expect at least four more to be set up before the summer recess; these are likely to include the resettlement units, the employment service, the QE II conference centre and, in my own Department, the Civil Service college. The project manager is continuing his review of Departments' activities, against the Government's decision that to the greatest extent practicable the executive functions of Government should be carried out by agencies.

As the House knows, the purpose of next steps is to improve management in the Civil Service. It enables the Minister responsible for each agency to define more clearly 238W the objectives and tasks required for the execution of policies, and the resources within which this must be done. People in agencies will be better able to tailor management structures and practices to the specific needs of their work, will have better defined jobs and objectives, and greater personal responsibility and accountability for achieving them. The aim is better value for money and better service to the public.

As the Government said in their reply to the Treasury and Civil Service Committee in November, they share the Committee's view that decentralised agencies offer scope for delegating more responsibility to managers for operational matters. The actions we have already taken since the announcement of the initiative by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister demonstrate the importance that we attach to ensuring that this should take place to the greatest extent possible, within a framework governing the agency's operations. On 10 November my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury announced, following a recommendation of the TCSC and after consultation with the Public Accounts Committee, that agency chief executives would take on significant accounting officer responsibilities. In a further development, aimed at permitting a more commercial regime in suitable cases, my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has today announced that the Government will seek legislation at the earliest opportunity to amend the Government Trading Funds Act 1973 to apply also to agencies through the medium of agency funds.

The action plan to secure improved management training which the project manager has drawn up is now being implemented in Departments, and good progress is being made. This is helped by the £1 million challenge funding scheme which we announced in November and which is now coming into effect.

Executive agencies established
Vehicle Inspectorate
Companies House
Her Majesty's Stationery Office
Executive agency candidates announced
Building Research Establishment
Business Statistics Office
Civil Service College
Civil Service Occupational Health Service
Crown Suppliers Fuel Branch
Defence Non-Nuclear Research Establishments
Department of Registers of Scotland
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Directorate
Driver Testing and Training
Employment Service
Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate, Scottish Office
Historic Royal Palaces
Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce
Insolvency Service
Laboratory of the Government Chemist
Land Registry
Meteorological Office
National Physical Laboratory
National Weights and Measures Laboratory
Passport Department
Patent Office
Planning Inspectorate
QEII Conference Centre
Radiocommunications Division, DTI
Resettlement Units
Royal Parks
Social Security Operations
Training Agency
Vehicle Component Approval Division, DTp
Warren Springs Laboratory
Northern Ireland Civil Service:
Employment and Training Services, Agricultural Research
Establishments, Social Security Operations