§ Gillian MerronTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he plans to lay before Parliament the Annual Report for the Forensic Science Service. [92877]
§ Mr. StrawI have today laid before Parliament copies of the Forensic Science Service's (FSS) Annual Report and Accounts for 1998–99.
The FSS met its financial target to recover its full costs and widened its accreditation through external bodies. However, it did fail to achieve the efficiency gain target and service delivery target. This was a challenging year for the FSS—expanding its work force by 400 and absorbing the associated recruitment and training costs. This is part of a two-year strategy to increase the capacity of the FSS to meet demand and eliminate backlogs of certain types of scientific work. The targets and plans agreed for 1998–99 were ambitious, and while the FSS failed to achieve two key targets mentioned above, it has already demonstrated a rapid improvement in quality of service during the latter part of 1998–99 and early 630W 1999–2000. I am confident that this, and the move to Trading Fund from 1 April 1999, should be the springboard for further successes.
The targets for 1999–2000, the agency's first year of trading fund, are:
FSS Agency targets 1999–2000 Targets 1. Financial indicators Return on capital employed Minimum 3 per cent. Efficiency gain (three year rolling target) Minimum 10 per cent. 2. Quality of Service indicators Turnaround time 24 days Achieve 90 per cent, agreed delivery dates 3. Milestone targets Put in place service level agreements with Put in place routine and robust customer police forces satisfaction measurement processes 4. Quality indicators Maintain external quality accreditation