Next Steps Agencies (Hansard, 26 January 1995)

§ Mr. Waldegrave

These are matters which are delegated to agency chief executives and I have asked them to reply.

When functions were transferred from the department to the agencies, so was the necessary funding. Expenditure and staffing in the core Ministry was accordingly reduced. There have been various accommodation changes within the agencies which will overall result in savings.

All agencies have to meet performance targets which encompass cost recovery and efficiency gains or savings; these are reviewed each year. Achievement against these targets are summarised in the "Next Steps Review 1994", Cm 2750.

Letter from Martin J. Savage to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 26 January 1995: In Dr. Walsh's absence, she has asked me to reply on her behalf. We thank you for the questions (PQ 402) in which you asked the Minister of Agriculture for information about each of the Next Steps Agencies within his department. This reply refers to ADAS.

Headquarters buildings ADAS acquired its own Headquarters building at Kidlington, Oxfordshire in 1992 at an annual rent of £228,893. However, by 1 April 1996, ADAS expects to have relinquished accommodation in central London and elsewhere in England and Wales at an annual saving of approximately £3.5 million.

Support staff There are no support staff which have been required which were previously not required when our operations were within MAFF. In fact, at the start of the agency there were 546 permanent full-time equivalent support staff and this has now reduced to 364. Thus there has been a reduction of approximately 33 per cent.

Periodical journals Only four periodical journals have been published with a circulation of 72,000 copies at a cost of £215,760.

Executive cars There is only one executive car which is used by the Chief Executive. This is at an approximate annual cost of £7,800.

Lagos At the start of the agency there was a relaunch of ADAS as an executive agency. This resulted in the creation of a new logo, its development and field-testing of the new identity. The total cost was approximately £15,000.

Corporate clothing Before agency status, protective clothing for field and laboratory work was provided for staff. Following the change to agency status, new badges for these items were provided at a nominal cost. As old clothing was replaced new items bearing the corporate logo machined-on were introduced. Pre-agency, all staff were provided with ties bearing the previous logo; these were replaced at the establishment of the agency. Female staff were provided with brooches bearing the corporate identity. This was at a total cost of £13,000.

Specially designed and printed corporate stationery Prior to agency status, stationery was available at each office bearing the individual address and the corporate logo. Following the move to agency status this was replaced but the new stationery was generally introduced as the old was used. ADAS was able to purchase new stationery (including the design and artwork) for a total of 96 different offices at a total cost of £35,500 which was equivalent to £370 per office. I hope that these details provide the answers you require.

359W

Letter from C. J. Lawson to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 26 January 1995: PQ11 18 January 1995 In the absence of the Chief Executive on business, I have been asked by the Minister to reply on behalf of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to your questions about Next Steps Agencies in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The information you requested is as follows:

Headquarters building The Directorate has not acquired its own headquarters buildings since becoming as an Agency on 2 April 1990. It occupies the same site at the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Addlestone as it did before Agency status.

Support staff Since 1990 there has been an increase of four in the number of support staff required, three dealing with information technology and one with finance.

Publications Excluding the Annual Report and Accounts, the Directorate publishes only one periodical journal, the Medicines Act Veterinary Information Service (MAVIS) quarterly newsletter. This was first issued in May 1992 to improve both the quality of service provided to our customers and the transparency of the licensing process for veterinary medicines. Approximately 6,000 copies are issued each quarter to holders of marketing authorisations, veterinary surgeons, interested organisations and individuals. The cost of publication in 1994 was £23,288.79.

Executive cars The Directorate does not have any executive cars.

Logos Details of the costs incurred in the design of the Directorate logo are held in our archive store, and it has not been possible to access these in the time available. I will write with the information required as soon as possible.

Corporate clothing The Directorate does not have any corporate clothing.

Corporate stationery The Directorate had its own stationery before Agency status was achieved. As stocks ran out, it was replaced at no additional cost by stationery indicating that the Directorate was an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Letter from A. M. Kerr to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 26 January 1995: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply, in respect of the Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD), to your Question seeking details of various corporate and related cost aspects of the Next Steps agencies in his Department (MAFF). The Directorate has not acquired its own headquarters buildings as a consequence of obtaining executive agency status. However, the agency has since been relocated along with some other parts of MAFF from buildings in central London and the South East to a MAFF office complex in York. PSD's share of the rental for the York office complex is estimated to be around £550,000 per annum. The only published periodical journal that the agency has responsibility for is The Pesticides Register. This is produced jointly with the Health and Safety Executive each month and provides a listing of UK pesticide approvals and other official announcements on pesticides. It is available as an HMSO priced publication and the production costs are met by HMSO and recovered through the annual subscription charge of £55 and sales of individual issues costing £4.50 each. The Directorate has its own specially designed logo. This was drawn up at the time of the agency launch on 1 April 1993 following an in-house competition and therefore no design costs were incurred. As far as corporate stationery is concerned, an initial set-up supply was obtained at a cost of £680.33. Apart from the need to obtain a new supply as a consequence of the change of address following relocation to the York site, the only stationery costs incurred by the Directorate have arisen from the general need to replenish used 360W stocks and as such do not constitute any additional cost to the normal operational requirements of the organisation. Finally, the Directorate has not required any additional support staff to that which was required when its operations were part of the core Department, nor has it purchased any executive cars or corporate clothing.

Letter from T W. A. Little to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 26 January 1995: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question covering the various running cost issues of the Ministry's agencies in so far as the Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL) is concerned. Perhaps I could deal with the issues you raise in the order they appear in your Question. CVL has not acquired a new Headquarters building and remains on the site it occupied at Weybridge when it became an Agency in April 1990. As you will note the Agency has been in existence for nearly five years now. In that time there have been a number of changes both in central MAFF and at the Agency and it is therefore not possible to draw meaningful comparisons between support staff prior to the creation of the Agency and after. This is particularly the case since CVL now carries out some functions such as marketing and business development not previously undertaken by the Ministry. CVL does not publish periodical journals nor does it have a fleet of or any single executive cars. As a separate part of the Department even prior to Agency status, CVL had its own logo. We updated this two years ago at a cost of £503.70. Given we have always had a logo our stationery could not be regarded as specially designed and change was effected as old stocks ran down. Finally, we do not use any corporate clothing at CVL.

Letter from P. I. Stanley to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 26 January 1995:

Information About HQ Buildings, Support Staff Periodic Journals, Executive Cars, Logos, Corporate Clothing and Stationery for the CSL Agency The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) was first launched as a Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) executive agency on 1 April 1992. Two years later CSL was re-launched as an enlarged Agency following the merger of the original Agency with the Food Science Laboratories at Norwich and Aberdeen. In your question you asked specifically for information on several items, and taking each one in turn: —prior to gaining Agency status CSL occupied several sites and had its headquarters building at Slough. This continues to be the case and so I can confirm that the Agency has not acquired any new headquarters building; —since gaining Agency status it has been necessary for CSL to create its own support functions. However the cost has been met from funding that already existed as a result of posts being transferred from the Department along with the operations; —the Agency has not produced any periodical journals; —the Agency does not provide executive cars but does operate a leased cars scheme under Departmental rules, which, in order to obtain best value for money, is based upon minimum official mileage and is open to all staff; —creation of the CSL logo resulted from an internal staff competition at a cost of a £50 award to the winning entrant; —corporate clothing has not been introduced by the Agency; —as a discrete part of the Department, prior to Agency status, CSL had its own bespoke stationery. This was replaced with new stationery bearing the Agency logo as stocks ran out.