HC Deb 14 February 1991 vol 185 cc539-40W
Mr. Campbell-Savours

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what estimate he has of the total value of Crown business so far lost by the Property Services Agency through competitive tendering by Government Departments;

(2) how many Crown tenders the Property Services Agency has competed for and how many has it won in competition since Crown customers were untied.

Mr. Yeo

The PSA has submitted competitive bids for some 200 separate commissions since Departments were untied. The extent to which these were successful is commercially sensitive information for the PSA businesses, which it would be inappropriate to disclose, but PSA has been successful in a sizeable proportion. The market testing has provided a powerful stimulus to efficiency, and Departments will have benefited from keener prices.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment by what date he now expects the Property Services Agency to operate on commercial accounts.

Mr. Yeo

PSA Services—PSAS—already produces, for management use, monthly income and expenditure accounts. The implementation of new commercial financial systems is well advanced and as they are introduced they are running in parallel with cash accounting for the Vote. PSAS will continue to operate on the basis of cash accounting until it ceases to be a Government Department.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the salary cost, including pay bonuses and compensation paid on termination of contract, of the Property Services Agency board members in the period January 1990 to January 1991.

Mr. Yeo

The salary cost of the executive members of the PSAS board for the 1990 calendar year was £680,100. The non-executive members received fees amounting to £23,904 in the same year.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many performance pay bonuses have been awarded to Property Services Agency board members in the period 1 January 1990 to 1 January 1991; and what was the total cost of those bonuses.

Mr. Yeo

During the 1990 calendar year three performance pay bonuses totalling £11,468 were awarded to Property Services Agency board members. The salaries of a further three board members included an element of performance pay totalling £8,538 as a result of awards made in previous years.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

To ask the Secretary of Slate for the Environment whether he expects compulsory redundancies among employees of the Property Services Agency Government-owned companies.

Mr. Yeo

The Property Services Agency hopes to achieve most of its required manpower reduction by voluntary means, but some compulsory redundancies will be inevitable.