Valuation Office (Hansard, 20 March 1997)

§ Mrs. Angela Knight

I have set the following key targets for the Valuation Office in 1997–98:

Quality of Service
to provide a substantive reply to 100 per cent. of correspondence within 20 working days of receipt
to achieve further improvements against the agency's indicators for:
timeliness—by 1 per cent. to 98 per cent.
valuation quality—by 1 per cent. to 86 per cent.
Operational
to clear 330,000 appeals in aggregate against the 1990 and the 1995 rating lists, including clearance by 31 December 1997 of all those appeals lodged prior to 31 March 1996 which can be settled by agreement
to clear 97,000 appeals against the council tax valuation lists: with the aim, in co-operation with valuation tribunals, of clearing all those received after 1 April 1997 within six months of receipt
to undertake 57,000 cases for the Inland Revenue for capital gains tax and inheritance tax purposes, clearing 90 per cent. of valuation cases within 42 days and 87 per cent. of negotiation cases within six months of receipt
Financial and Cost Efficiency
to ensure the agency's net operating cost is at least fully covered by receipts
to break even from year to year within each business segment, after charging for the full cost of chargeable services including notional interest of 6 per cent. on the average working capital
to achieve efficiency savings of 6.6 per cent. of the agency's gross expenditure

Further details are set out in the agency's forward plan, copies of which will be placed in the Library of the House on publication.