HC Deb 01 February 1994 vol 236 c642W
Ms Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when the Fire Service college annual report and accounts for the year ended March 1993 will be published;

(2) what was the financial target set for the Fire Service college on being given trading fund status; and if it has been achieved.

Mr. Charles Wardle

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Fire Service college under its commandant chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from B. L Fuller to Ms Joan Ruddock, dated 31 January 1994: The Secretary of State has asked The Fire Service College to write to you directly in reply to two of your Parliamentary Questions about the College. The Fire Service College Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended March 1993 were laid before both Houses on 4 November 1993 as part of Votes and Proceedings on that day. Printed copies of the Report should be available shortly but have been delayed due to my negotiating what the cost to the College would be of providing a limited number of copies. On being given trading fund status, The Fire Service College was set two financial targets:

  1. (i) "to manage the funded operations so that the revenue of the fund consists principally of receipts in respect of goods or services provided in the course of the funded operations and is not less than sufficient, taking one year with another, to meet outgoings which are properly chargeable to revenue account."
  2. (ii) "a further financial objective desirable of achievement by the Fire Service College for the period 1 April 1992 to 31 March 1995 shall be to achieve a minimum return, average over the period as a whole, of 6.5 per cent. in the form of an operating surplus expressed as a percentage of average net assets employed at current values."
The first was not met in 1992–93, the second cannot be finally assessed until 1995 but the first year showed a return of 0.65 per cent. I hope this is helpful.

Ms Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Fire Service college has made a loss since achieving trading fund status; and who will make good such a loss.

Mr. Charles Wardle

The Fire Service college became an agency operating as a trading fund on 1 April 1992. In the year 1992–93, it made a small operating surplus, but, after allowing for interest on the capital debt, it recorded a deficit of £1.152 million. The college is a Home Office establishment and the situation is being kept under review.