HC Deb 12 March 1992 vol 205 cc588-9W
Sir John Wheeler

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made towards establishing the Fire Service college as an executive agency; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

I am pleased to announce that the Fire Service college will be established as both a Home Office executive agency and a trading fund on 1 April. It will continue to be known as the Fire Service college under this new status. I shall be placing a copy of the college's framework document in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

The main aim of the Fire Service College will be to provide fire-related training and to promote fire safety awareness. It is recognised as being pre-eminent in its field and will therefore be starting from a sound basis in fulfilling this aim. I am confident that the enhanced freedoms and responsibilities which the framework document grants to the chief executive of the agency, together with the additional financial flexibilities of a trading fund, will enable the college to deliver further improvements in its services to customers by providing better value for money.

The key targets which I have set the agency for its first year of operation are:

  1. i) to break even financially with a return on capital employed of 6 per cent.
  2. ii) to achieve a cost per student week of £787;
  3. iii) to achieve a throughput of 16,650, 3,202 and 2,182 student weeks, or equivalent consultancy income, in 589 respect of the United Kingdom fire service, the commercial and industrial sector and the international sector respectively;
  4. iv) 85 per cent. of students to achieve a 70 per cent. pass rate in assessments;

The chief executive, Mr. Brian Fuller CBE, will be directly accountable to me for the performance of the Fire Service College. An advisory board comprising representatives of the Home Office, the Scottish Office and fire authorities, together with two independent members, will help me to assess the college's performance.