HC Deb 30 January 1997 vol 289 cc350-1W
Mr. Jacques Arnold

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement about the Royal Air Force Personnel Management Agency. [13914]

6. Mr. Soames

The Royal Air Force Personnel Management Agency will form as a defence agency of the Ministry of Defence on 1 February 1997. The aim of the RAF PMA is to enable the Royal Air Force to meet its manpower commitments in war, tension, crisis and peace. The RAF PMA will have a staff of about 475 of which about half are civilian. The commander-in chief, personnel and training command, will be the owner of the RAF PMA on behalf of the Secretary of State for Defence.

The RAF PMA chief executive, an air vice-marshal, will be required to manage the Royal Air Force's manpower assets in the most cost-effective manner, to initiate, develop and apply personnel policies and to manage the careers of officers and non-commissioned personnel in a manner that ensures the best return for the Royal Air Force's investment in individuals. The chief executive has been set the following key targets:

Manning

  1. (a) To distribute the available pool of suitably qualified trained personnel to enable the Royal Air Force to meet its military tasks, as detailed in the departmental plan, during crisis, tension and war. Target for 1997–98 is greater than 95 per cent.
  2. (b) To man the requirements in the local unit establishments, crisis establishments or unit war establishments, as appropriate, and providing specified categories of authorised non-established tasks with suitably qualified training personnel. Target for 1997–98 is greater than 90 per cent.

Career management

To ensure the percentage of personnel receiving less than the required notice of a posting that qualifies for a domestic move is less than 20 per cent.

Customer Satisfaction

To establish a system of measuring customer satisfaction and set the baseline for measurement in future years by 31 March 1998.

Reserve Forces

To meet the Air Force Board's target for an increase in the number of operational reservists. Target for 1997–98 is greater than 1,550.

Manpower Planning

To ensure that the percentage variation between the actual trained strength and the authorised trained strength, taken as an average over the financial year, is not greater than ±1 per cent.

Manpower Gapping

To achieve an annual 2.5 per cent. reduction in the number of manpower gaps, subject to the actual trained strength meeting the trained requirement.

I am arranging for copies of the agency's framework document and corporate plan to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.