§ Lord Gainfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to establish the Public Trust Office as a Next Steps agency.
§ The Lord ChancellorI am pleased to announce that it is my intention to establish the Public Trust Office as an executive agency in the seond half of 1994. As part of the process of establishing the office as an agency, I will be examining the services the office provides, defining them clearly and asking the Public Trustee to draw up a statement of charter standards, setting out the levels of service the office aims to achieve.
Although the agency will initially comprise all of the present functions of the office I have asked for further work to be carried out to examine the continuing need for a trustee service provided by the public sector and whether the functions undertaken by the Court Funds Office are necessary.