§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 6 February 2004, Official Report, column 1090W, on business link operators, which are the five business link operators referred to as seriously underperforming; and if she will give their(a) performance results and (b) budget for each year since their establishment. [155320]
§ Nigel GriffithsOf the five business link operators, three (BL Derbyshire, BL Tees Valley and BL Bedfordshire and Luton) did not have their contracts automatically extended and were required to undergo a business performance review. The remaining two operators (Cambridge Business Services and Sussex Enterprise) were only required to undergo business performance reviews
The performance results for the five operators as at the end of Quarter 3 in 2002–03 and their performance results for each full year since the business link network was re-engineered in 2001–02, are as follows:
(a) Quarter 3 2002–03 Performance Results Percentage Market penetration (businesses helped as a proportion of the inter Departmental Business Register) Customer Satisfaction (April to September 2002 survey) BL Derbyshire 12.2 76.0 BL Tees Valley 25.1 71.3 BL Bedfordshire and Luton 8.8 78.4 Cambridgeshire Business Services 9.5 75.6 Sussex Enterprise 11.8 85.7 609W
(b) Performance Results at each year end since 200–02 Percentage 2001–02 2002–03 Market Penetration BL Derbyshire 18.1 15.5 BL Tees Valley 26.1 29.4 BL Bedfordshire and Luton 10.1 12.3 Cambridgeshire Business Services 9.8 11.4 Sussex Enterprise 18.0 15.5
Percentage 2001–021 2002–032 Customer Satisfaction BL Derbyshire 77.4 83.1 BL Tees Valley 81.7 78.2 BL Bedfordshire and Luton 89.2 82.4 Cambridgeshire Business Services 82.1 75.5 Sussex Enterprise 86.6 79.5 1October 2001 to March 2002 survey 2October 2002 to March 2003 survey Since SBS took action to address underperformance last year all five business link operators have, following their business performance reviews, taken effective action to address their problems and have all subsequently achieved significant improvements in their performance.
The performance improvements registered by BL Derbyshire, BL Tees Valley and BL Bedfordshire and Luton have been sufficient enough for SBS to extend their contracts to the full three years with effect from April 2004.