§ Mr. MerchantTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what targets he has set for 1992–93 for the performance measures of the Laboratory of the Government Chemist agency.
§ Mr. LeighThe primary performance target of the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) for 1992–93 continues to be the recovery of its full economic cost from income from customers. In addition, new secondary performance measures have been developed to supersede those agreed when the agency was originally established in October 1989. For 1992–93 these are
completion of reports on research into the feasibility of further analysis of samples by the date agreed with customers: to increase from an average of 80 per cent. in the first quarter to an average of 88 per cent. in the last quarter;to achieve more than 85 per cent. of contract research milestones within the time scale agreed with customers; to maintain accreditation from the National Measurement Accreditation Service (NAMAS) for the existing 15 categories of work and obtain NAMAS accreditation for a further category of work by April 1993;to acquire accreditation for LGC as a whole to BS 5750 Part 1 (ISO 9001) by April 1994.These targets will be subject to annual review.