§ Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement about defence agency status for the Royal Air Force support command maintenance group at Brampton.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThe maintenance group within RAF support command will become a defence support agency of the Ministry of Defence on 1 April 1991. The group comprises a headquarters at RAF Brampton and 12 RAF stations, together with a number of aerosystems, supply and signals units established at those stations and elsewhere within RAF support and strike commands. It is currently manned by some 7,780 RAF personnel and 5,830 civilians, and for financial year 1991–92 has a projected operating budget of £288 million and a full cost budget of £643 million.
The role of the maintenance group is to provide aerosystems and signals engineering, warehousing and transportation, and communication services to the Royal Air Force. The high professional standards which have characterised the group's support for the RAF will be maintained, and agency status will provide the chief executive with new opportunities to improve the efficiency and value for money of his organisation. The Air Officer Commanding Maintenance Units, Air Vice Marshal D. G. Campbell, has been appointed the agency's chief executive.
The chief executive has been set the following key targets for the first year of operation of the agency:
To achieve at least 95 per cent. of specified tasks for 1991–92, representing approximately 75 per cent. of group activity, to standard and on time, and to develop similar measures of programme delivery to cover additional MG tasks by 1 April 1992;To reduce the proportion, in value terms, of the total annual throughput of avionic and mechanical components tied up in work by 10 per cent. in 1991–92, and to develop a general costing system for equipment in work by 1 April 1992;To perform all operational support tasks to RAF or NATO standards, as appropriate;To keep within agreed budget;To improve overall efficiency by saving the equivalent of 1.5 per cent. of cash costs in FY 1991–92;To determine for future years appropriate measures and targets for efficiency improvement, including units cost targets, by 1 April 1992;571WIn light of Options and PROSPECT studies, to complete planning for group estate and asset rationalisation, including investment appraisal, by 1 October 1992;To develop a consistent approach to defining units of output by 1 April 1992;To introduce a commercial costing system for all major tasks by 1 October 1992.To complete and validate all capital asset registers, and to develop performance indicators for asset utilisation, by 1 April 1992;To develop a total quality management (TQM) approach designed to bring out continuous improvement in quality, including increased attention to the balance of quality and cost and to customer satisfaction.