§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what steps are being taken to clarify performance criteria and establish a clear division of responsibility between Ministers and their officials.
§ Mr. David HuntFramework documents for executive agencies and organisations working on next steps lines describe the division of responsibilities between Ministers and officials. Taken together with an agency's corporate and business plans they also set out the indicators and targets used to assess performance. Sixty-two per cent. of the home civil service work in agencies and the executive structures of the two Revenue departments. Another 17 per cent. are in functions identified as definite or possible agency candidates.
In core departments, published annual reports already set out departmental aims, objectives and achievements against previous plans or targets. "The Civil Service: 2W Taking Forward Continuity and Change" (Cm 2748) builds on the arrangements already in place in sets out the Government's view that there should be an increasing emphasis on extending, throughout the civil service, many of the principles of next steps, including maximum clarity about objectives and targets.