§ Mr. HannamTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in turning Wilton park into an executive agency.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydWilton Park became an executive agency on 1 September. Copies of its framework document have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The agency will be responsible for organising on behalf' of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the very successful annual programme of Wilton park international conferences. There will be at least 18 such conferences a year. The agency will also be responsible for marketing the spare capacity of the Wiston house conference centre for private conferences and functions. Through the medium of the framework document and the corporate plan I have instructed the chief executive that I expect the agency to maintain the effectiveness of the Wiston house conference centre as the home of Wilton park conferences, and to endeavour to raise still further the international prestige of the conferences. I have delegated to the chief executive full managerial responsibility for the agency and its day-to-day operations and provided the necessary financial and management freedoms to enable him to achieve its targets.
I have set the agency the following key targets for this financial year:
- to increase income from £713,000 to £771,500;
- to recover 61 per cent. of its costs;
- to increase the overall number of Wilton park conference participants from 656 to 720.
- to ensure that the average cost to the FCO of each participant should not exceed £679.