§ Mr. ElletsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she has identified any further candidates for agency status under the next steps initiative within her Department.
§ Mr. SackvilleFollowing a detailed feasibility study, we have identified the Department's NHS superannuation branch as a candidate for executive agency status.
We are confident that the move to agency status will be beneficial, enabling the agency to operate with greater freedom and clearer responsibility within an agreed framework of objectives, performance targets and resources, thus improving the service provided to the pension scheme members.
Detailed discussions on an agency framework document have been set in hand with a view to establishing NHS Pensions as an executive agency in the second half of 1992.