HC Deb 25 January 1995 vol 253 cc238-40W
Mr. Kaufman

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 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 publish 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 specially designed logos and at what cost; how many have corporate clothing and at what cost; and what is the cost of specially designed and printed corporate stationery.

Mr. Nelson

The information sought falls within the operational responsibilities of the chief executives of the Royal Mint, Central Statistical Office, Paymaster and Valuation Office executive agencies and I have asked each of them to arrange for a reply to be given. The four agencies did not form part of the Treasury prior to becoming agencies.

Letter from Mr. R. Holmes to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 24 January 1995: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to provide, in relation to the Royal Mint, the information sought in your Question concerning Agency expenditure on a number of specific matters. I will respond to each of these as they appear in your Question:

  1. 1. The Royal Mint is a Government Department which has been a Trading Fund since 1975 and an Agency since 1990. The change to Agency status did not result in any additional expenditure on buildings or staff.
  2. 2. The Royal Mint issues a monthly staff newsletter at an annual cost of £4,000.
  3. 3. The Royal Mint has no personally allocated executive cars.
  4. 4. Coincidental with our new Agency status in 1990, the Royal Mint commissioned a new Corporate identity—for commercial reasons and totally unrelated to our new status. The total cost of this was £32,000.
  5. 5. The Royal Mint provides clothing where there is an occupational or safety requirement eg protective clothing in the factory. The annual cost is approximately £95,000.
  6. 6. The Royal Mint has incurred no costs in specially designed and printed corporate stationery since our logo was changed in 1990.
I hope this information is helpful.

Letter from W. McLennan to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 25 January 1995: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply to your Question of 20 January about Next Steps agencies. 2. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) became an Executive Agency on 19 November 1991. The following are the answers to the specific points raised in your Question: The CSO has not acquired its own headquarters buildings. No additional support staff were required when the CSO became an agency, because it was a separate department then and has remained one since. CSO has continued to publish statistics on a regular basis and the full costs of the agency are set out in its Annual Report and Accounts (copy attached). The CSO has no executive cars. The CSO introduced a new logo in 1993, which was designed in-house. No extra cost was incurred in printing corporate stationery for the agency compared with previous stationery costs.

Letter from Keith Sullens to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 24 January 1995: I am writing as Chief Executive of PAYMASTER in response to your written question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about costs of the Next Steps Agencies in his Department. PAYMASTER continues to occupy the premises it was in prior to becoming an Executive Agency. Sutherland House, Crawley is a Crown building for which Property Holdings is paid a current rent of £1,327,000 pa. Due to restructuring of the Agency the space occupied will be reduced considerably by 31 March 1996, the rental will be £862,000—a saving of 36%. Historically the Office of the Paymaster General had been an autonomous unit within HM Treasury and therefore no significant additional numbers of support staff were required. PAYMASTER does not issue periodic journals, other than the Annual Report and Statement of Accounts as required by statute. There are no personally allocated executive cars in PAYMASTER. Two cars are hired for official business on a first come first served basis and they are available for all staff. The annual cost of hire is £5,856 pa, excluding petrol and oil. PAYMASTER commissioned a design for a new corporate identity with new logo for the Agency launch, the cost of which was £12,500 excluding VAT. A very small sum, (less than £200) has been spent on corporate clothing for messengerial staff. A limited amount of new corporate stationery was produced at a cost of £15,000, excluding VAT. Design costs were included in the overall figure quoted. I hope that this answers your queries satisfactorily but if you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Letter from A. J. Langford to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 25 January 1995: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply to your Question about the cost of certain operational functions since becoming an Executive Agency under the Next Steps programme.

Headquarters buildings The Valuation Office's head office continues to be based in the same building as before. No additional accommodation has been taken for headquarters buildings.

Support staff No additional support staff have been taken on by the Valuation Office in consequence of its move to Executive Agency status.

Periodical journals The Valuation Office continues to produce a Property Market Report on a twice yearly basis. This is on sale to the public and is priced on a cost recovery basis.

Executive cars The Valuation Office does not have any executive cars.

Agency logo The Valuation Office's logo was designed in-house at no additional cost.

Corporate clothing The Valuation Office provides uniforms incorporating the Agency logo for its messengerial and security staff in its head office. Uniforms were provided to this group of staff pre Agency status and the additional cost of incorporating the Agency logo was minimal. The annual running cost of uniforms is in the order of £1,950. There is no other form of corporate clothing.

Corporate stationery As the move to Agency status developed, opportunities were taken to run down existing stocks of stationery and reprinting with the Agency title gradually introduced and no additional costs arose. Please let me know if I can assist further.