§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)My honourable friend the Minister of State for Defence (Mr Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The following key targets have been agreed for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) for the financial year 2004–05.
1. At least maintain overall customer satisfaction and understanding of Dstl; by 31 March 2005 implement new methodology and set the baseline against which Dstl will monitor and improve its customer relationships in the future.
2. Maintain and by the end of a three-year period show an increase in score for scientific and engineering capability in the technical benchmarking exercise from 67 per cent in 2002–03 to 72 per cent in 2005–06.
3. By 31 July 2004 publish an update of Dstl's technical strategy that identifies the key technical issues and Dstl's role in addressing them, and by 31 March 2005 agree with MoD a future process that ensures that Dstl aligns itself with MoD's S&T outputs.
4. Achieve planned progress to meet the completion date of 2008 for the transfer of Dstl on to three core sites at Porton Down, Portsdown West and Fort Halstead. Key milestones in 2004–05 are: issue the invitation to tender for the site rationalisation and facilities management contract (December 2004); pilot office layout options (March 2005); produce a plan for site remediation at Porton Down (October 2004).
5. Pilot at least three areas of category management—procurement of manpower technical support, travel and laboratory equipment—to achieve cost and efficiency savings of £5.5 million by 31 March 2005.
6. Maintain the average charge rate for manpower for 2004–05 and beyond below that for 2001–02 uplifted by GDP deflator.
19WS7. Achieve an ROCE of at least 3.5 per cent and an MoD dividend of £3 million1.
1In addition to the 2004–05 ROCE target of at least 3.5 per cent, Dstl will aim to achieve a ROCE of at least 3.5 per cent averaged across the period 2004–05 to 2008–09, as agreed with HM Treasury.