§ Mr. CormackTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how his Department is responding to the next steps initiative; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AitkenMy Department's response to next steps is part of the major programme of defence management reform in train. Next steps, in line with the principles of the citizens charter, places particular emphasis on efficiency, standards of service to customers and value for money. The Ministry of Defence's support organisations provide services to internal and external customers, but their primary role is to support the operational units in their delivery of military capability. Higher standards of service and performance will enhance the overall effectiveness of our defence capability.
Areas now under review include the Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation, the naval marine services organisation, RN training, Army logistic information systems, Army Engineer Services, RAF signals, and test and evaluation.
We are increasing the scale of this. Our aim is to extend the next steps programme to all significant defence support areas. This means that we shall also consider for defence agency status the whole of the naval support organisation including the naval bases and the storage and distribution function; the recruiting, pay and some personnel systems for each of the services; those schools not already in agencies; Army individual training; significant further elements of Army logistics in the base areas and RAF logistics; the medical organisations of each service; human factors research; tri-service communications systems; the Defence lands organisation; and elements of the procurement executive.
There is no presumption that an organisation included in this list will become an agency. This is a process which involves, inter alia, consideration of operational implications and of prior options, including privatisation and contracting out. Final decisions will be taken case-by-case if it is clear that the best solution is to retain the activity within the Ministry of Defence. Our aim is to have prepared the selected organisations for launch as defence agencies over the period to mid-1996. We expect to have completed a substantial part of the programme by mid-1995.