§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what baseline his Department will use to demonstrate that organisations have secured a 1 per cent. increase in cost efficiency and 1 per cent. increase in quality 835W equivalent of its budget, as set out in paragraph 8.4 of "Improvement, Expansion and Reform: The Next Three Years". [75714]
§ Mr. Lammy[holding answer 22 October 2002]: This requirement relates to the value for money public service agreement (PSA) target:
Value for money in the NHS and personal social services will improve by at least 2 per cent., per annum, with annual improvements of 1 per cent., in both cost efficiency and service effectiveness.The PSA covers the three years from 2003–04, so the baseline for the target is the cost and quality of services in 2002–03.