HC Deb 14 May 1991 vol 191 cc103-4W
Mr. Butterfill

To ask the Prime Minister what topics have been covered in the efficiency unit's central scrutiny programme in the last financial year; and which scrutiny reports have been published.

The Prime Minister

Twenty efficiency scrutinies have been undertaken by Departments in 1990–91 in association with the efficiency adviser and the efficiency unit. The programme of scrutinies, including those which are not yet completed, is as follows:

clergy stipends and housing. Each year they may make grants for other purposes from any surplus income they may have. They have in each of the past four years, voted a grant of £1 million for the church urban fund; it is not, however, an automatically recurring "annual" grant.

The Commissioners will, at their annual general meeting in June, carefully consider, in the light of their overall financial position and other demands on their income, whether they can make a contribution in 1991 and, if so, at what level.

Their substantial administrative help to the fund, totalling around £300,000 a year, will, in any event, continue.