HC Deb 04 June 2003 vol 406 cc5-7WS
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Elliot Morley)

The Department carried out a review of its five-science based agencies in 2002. It was published on 17 December. Copies of the report are available onhttp://www.defra.gov.uk/agency_review/index.asp.

One of the review's recommendations was that improvements to the performance management arrangements for VLA, CEFAS and CSL should be introduced from 2003–04 including agreed outcomes, with output targets as measurable indicators for meeting those outcomes.

I have set the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the Central Science Laboratory the following agreed outcomes and performance targets for 2003–2004:

VLA

Cost effective and efficient science businesses Achieve full cost recovery Maintain the ratio of overheads against turnover. Achieve £525K procurement savings.

Outward looking and collaborative organisations Prepare an annual report on their collaborative work.

Provision of R&D and science services of the required quality Maintain current third party accreditations Make satisfactory progress towards meeting the deadline of June 2004 for compliance with the DEFRA policy for Quality Assurance for Research.

Provision of a high standard of service to the satisfaction of customers Meet 85 per cent. of ROAME1 milestones. Meet 95 per cent. published turnaround time for export tests. Achieve a customer satisfaction score of 75 per cent. CEFAS

Cost effective and efficient science businesses To achieve savings by ensuring that support function costs grow more slowly than income. To recover from government departments and agencies and external customers the full economic costs of the Agency's services To manage the agency in an effective manner including pursuit of commercial exploitation of research outputs

Outward looking and collaborative organizations To prepare an annual report on their collaborative work.

Provision of R&D and science services of the required quality To maintain a high standard of excellence, based on indicators of scientific and technical quality. Make satisfactory progress towards meeting the deadline of June 2004 for compliance with the DEFRA policy for Quality Assurance for Research.

Provision of a high standard of service to the satisfaction of customers To give satisfaction to customers in the way that outputs are provided, taking account of the relevance, timeliness and value for money of outputs and the achievement of ROAME1 milestones.

CSL

Cost effective and efficient science businesses To recover the full economic costs of operation on a resource accounting basis, recognising the normal costs of operation To deliver the efficiency targets set out in the Business Plan. To manage the agency in an effective manner, including delivery of e-government and commercial exploitation of research outputs

Outward looking and collaborative organisations To prepare an annual report on their collaborative work.

Provision of R&D and science services of the required quality To make satisfactory progress with the action plan for enhancing science quality resulting from the 2001–02 Science Audit Make satisfactory progress towards meeting the deadline of June 2004 for compliance with the DEFRA policy for Quality Assurance for Research.

Provision of a high standard of service to the satisfaction of customers To achieve a minimum of 90 per cent. of project milestones in commissioned projects which support the "Developing DEFRA" objectives To achieve a mean score of 4.2 on a scale of 0 to 5 for the assessment of customer satisfaction using the revised methodology 1Rationale, Objectives, Appraisal, Monitoring and Evaluation statement—an integrated approach to programme/project management

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