§ Mr. KaufmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will set out for each of the next steps agencies in his Department, whether they have acquired their own headquarters buildings and, if so, at what purchase cost or annual rental; how many support staff they have required which were not required when their operations were within his Department; how many of them published periodical journals and at what annual cost; how many have fleets of executive cars or single executive cars and at what annual cost; how many have specifically designed logos and at what cost; how many have corporate clothing and at what cost; and what is the cost of specifically designed and printed corporate stationery.
§ Mr. Lang[holding answer 25 January I995]These are matters which are delegated to agency chief executives and I have asked them to reply. Copies of their letters will be placed in the House Library.
Registers of Scotland was a separate Government Department in its own right and the Scottish Record Office was an associated department of the Scottish Office and as such neither was part of the Scottish Office before they became executive agencies.
When functions were transferred from the core of the Scottish Office to the agencies, so was the necessary funding; staffing levels in the Scottish Office and its agencies have decreased over the four years since the establishment of the first Executive Agency in my Department.
The record of agencies in improving effectiveness and efficiency in government is summarised in the "Next Steps Review 1994," Cm 2750.