HC Deb 01 November 1991 vol 198 cc9-10W
Mr. Paice

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made towards establishing the Buying Agency as an executive agency.

Mr. Heseltine

I am pleased to announce that yesterday I established the Buying Agency as an executive agency within my Department. It is the fourth agency to be set up within the Department of the Environment under "next steps".

The Buying Agency—TBA for short—is a public sector procurement agency. Its primary purpose is to provide the means for Government departments to obtain a wide range of engineering, building, maintenance and domestic products and services under arrangements that provide quality assurance and value for money, and which comply with public purchasing policy and regulations. Other TBA customers include the national health service and other non-departmental public bodies.

Last year TBA became an independently accountable division of the Crown Suppliers, under whose wing it had operated for a number of years. Earlier this year, after the closure of its parent body, the House agreed that TBA should operate its business within its own trading fund. I am confident that the combination of this financial regime, the additional management freedoms resulting from TBA's new status as an executive agency and the scope it has to develop its business on sound commercial lines will enable the agency to deliver increasing improvements in its service to customers and better value for money to the taxpayer.

The agency is already well on the way to meeting the financial targets I have set to the end of 1991. These are: —in respect of each financial year, to make a profit after interest in current cost terms of 1.5 per cent. of the total value of goods and services procured; —to increase the total value of goods and services procured, in a customer driven away, from £97 million in 1990 to £111 million in 1991, and to progressively higher levels in successive years.

In addition, I also propose targets for improving the quality of service, in line with the aims of the citizens charter: —to answer complaints on poor service/late delivery within three working days; —to ensure quoted delivery times are met in 90 per cent. of cases.

I have appointed Mr. Roger Powell to be chief executive of TBA for the next three years. He will be directly accountable to me for the management and performance of the agency. I wish him and all the staff of The Buying Agency every success for the future.

The arrangements for the agency are described in full in its framework document, copies of which have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.