§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am announcing today that the key targets that have been set for the chief executive of the Veterans Agency (VA) for the financial year 2005–06 are as follows:
Service
Key target 1: To issue decisions on claims to war pensions in an average of no more than 59 working days. This is an improvement of four working days on the agency's 2004–05 target; and it represents a cumulative improvement of 41 per cent against the agency's 2000–01 baseline level of 100 working days.
Key target 2: To issue decisions on war widows claims in an average of no more than 23 working days. This is an improvement of two working days on the agency's 2004–05 target; and it represents a cumulative improvement of 36 per cent against the agency's 2000–01 baseline level of 36 working days.
Key target 3: To achieve an externally-validated war pensions scheme claims accuracy rate of at least 97 per cent.
Key target 4: To achieve an externally-validated AFCS claims accuracy rate of at least 97 per cent.
Key target 5: To achieve an externally-validated medical adjudication accuracy rate of at least 97 per cent.
Working in Partnership
Key target 6: To work with the Department for Constitutional Affairs Court Service to reduce the average time it takes an appeal to pass through the war pensions appeals process. By 31 March 2006 the average time should reduce to no more than 225 working days. This is an improvement of 15 working days on the agency's 2004–05 target; and it represents a cumulative improvement of 60 per cent against its 2000–01 baseline level of 565 working days.