HL Deb 22 July 1999 vol 604 cc126-7WA
Lord Bach

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will lay before Parliament the Annual Report for the Forensic Science Service (FSS). [HL3838]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Williams of Mostyn)

Today my right honourable friend the Home Secretary 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 workforce 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 whilst 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 1999–2000. We are 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

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 police forces.
  • Put in place routine and robust customer satisfaction measurement processes.

4. Quality indicators

  • Maintain external quality accreditation.