HC Deb 07 May 1993 vol 224 cc269-70W
Sir Paul Beresford

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what key targets have been set for his executive agencies for the current year.

Mr. Waldegrave

I am responsible for six executive agencies; Chessington Computer Centre, Central Office of Information, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Civil Service College, Civil Service Occupational Health Service and Recruitment and Assessment Services. I announced Chessington's targets for the current year when it was launched on 1 April 1993. For the others, I have set the following key targets for each agency for the current year.

Central Office of Information (1993–94)

  1. (i) To achieve break-even in current cost terms after covering all costs;
  2. (ii) To achieve a 1 per cent. reduction in unit cost of output in real terms while maintaining suitable levels of quality;
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  3. (iii) To deliver all work in accordance with client specification;
  4. (iv) To deliver all work on time.

Her Majesty's Stationery Office (1993)

  1. (i) To achieve a current cost operating profit of £8.0 million, before exceptional items.
  2. (ii) For print procurement, to achieve 95 per cent. overall of orders delivered to time and 100 per cent. of vital orders on time. Also 100 per cent. of orders delivered without fault;
  3. (iii) For publications, to achieve 95 per cent. overall of production jobs delivered to time and 100 per cent. of basic production jobs on time. Also 100 per cent. of production jobs delivered without fault; in addition, to dispatch 85 per cent. of publications orders within four working days of receipt and 95 per cent. within five working days;
  4. (iv) For business supplies, to dispatch 99 per cent. of orders of stock catalogue items within four working days of receipt. For non-stock items to place 95 per cent. of orders with contractors within five working days of receipt by HMSO.

Civil Service College (1993–94)

  1. (i) To break even in accrual accounting terms, taking into account the central payment from OPSS;
  2. (ii) To earn £300,000 from consultancy work;
  3. (iii) To attract 7,200 students at grade 7 or above and 2,400 students below grade 7 who are in development schemes;
  4. (iv) To attract 2,120 students on courses for externally validated qualifications;
  5. (v) To earn 80 per cent. of course evaluations in the two highest categories;
  6. (vi) There is also a medium term objective of obtaining a 10 per cent. increase in efficiency over the period 1991–92 to 1995–96.

Civil Service Occupational Health Service (1993–94)

  1. (i) To break even in accrual accounting terms;
  2. (ii) To achieve a cost per productive professional day (including administrative and overhead costs) of £268 or less;
  3. (iii) To achieve an average cost per case referral of £2350 or less;
  4. (iv) To turn round within 15 days, 90 per cent. of referrals where no additional information is sought and within 40 days 65 per cent. of case referrals where additional information is sought;
  5. (v) To earn 85 per cent. of customer satisfaction marking in the top two boxes of the post-service questionnaire.

Recruitment and Assessment Services (1993–94)

  1. (i) To keep any operating deficit on an accruals basis to £450,000 or less;
  2. (ii) To achieve volumes of 475 consultancy days sold and 25 training courses organised;
  3. (iii) To increase efficiency by 2.5 per cent. over 1992–93 outturn;
  4. (iv) To improve the quality of service to customers and achieve 95 per cent. responses in the top three categories of the customer satisfaction questionnaires and, within this target, to achieve 75 per cent. of responses in the top two categories.