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Cabinet Office

Answer

Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will make a statement on the performance of the main departments and agencies against the six service standards for central Government over the last financial year. [92879] Dr. Jack Cunningham: I have arranged for a report on the performance of the main Departments and agencies to be placed in the Libraries of the House. This is the second report on performance against the six service standards and reflects our continuing commitment to openness and to reporting transparently on our performance. The report shows that, in many cases, performance in responding to correspondence from the public has improved over the past year. There have been some exceptional performances, although there have also been some disappointing results. Overall, there is still room for improvement, and all Departments and agencies are striving to do better this year. The performance of the main Departments and agencies is summarised in the table. Against the other standards, the report shows that users with pre-arranged meetings are usually seen within 10 minutes of their appointment, that all Departments have at least one telephone inquiry point, and that all Departments now have complaints procedures in place covering all their services. The report also shows some of the innovative ways in which Departments and agencies are consulting their users and making their services more accessible. The Modernising Government White Paper announced some changes to the standards for this financial year, in particular the introduction on 1 October 1999 of new standards covering the length of time users should wait to be seen in public offices, the setting up of e-mail inquiry points, and how long users of telephone inquiry points should have to wait before their calls are answered. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Department/Agency Target (working Total volume Percentage of Target 1999-2000 Agencies included days) responses within (working days) target Ministry of Agriculture, 15 118,644 91 15 Yes Fisheries and Food Cabinet Office 15 5,774 99.5 15 Yes Crown Prosecution 10 2,017 82.6 10 n/a Service{1} Department for Culture, 18 28,861 71 18 No Media and Sport{18} HM Customs and Excise 10 794,746 91 10 n/a Ministry of Defence 20 8,769 78 20 Yes Department of Education and 15 108,000 89 15 No Employment Employment Service{2} 10 Not measured 94 10 Department of the 15 66,273 78 15 No Environment, Transport and the Regions Driving Standards Agency 15 15,248 99 15 DVLA 15 417,028 97 15 Highways Agency 15 32,000 83 15 Maritime Coastguard Agency 15 13,269 93 15 Vehicle Inspectorate 15 2,567 93 15 Foreign and Commonwealth 20 35,971 87 20 No Office Government Offices for the Max 15 N/A Between 81 and 100 Max 15 n/a Regions{10} Department of Health{16} 20 52,656 63 20 Yes NHS Pensions Agency 20 15,364 100 20 Home Office{14} 20 150,699 23 20 No UK Passport Agency 10 71,503 97 10 Prison Service 20 34,045 85 20 Inland Revenue{11} 20 86,000,000 80 20 n/a Intervention Board 10 13,318 79 10 Lord Chancellor's 20 5,490 72 20 No Department Court Service{6} 10 4,591,004 97 10 Court Service HQ 20 6,995 98 20 Land Registry 3 323,513 94 3 Public Trust Office 20 87,926 96 20 NI Court Service 20 97 96 20 Public Record Office 10 28,045 99.5 10 Department of Social 20 26,984 60 20 No Security{17} Benefits Agency{13} 10 11,132,631 81-88 10 Contributions Agency 20 377,831 97 20 Child Support Agency{8} 10 Not recorded 56 10 War Pensions Agency{9} 10 260,000 71.4 10 Department of Trade and 15 162,000 92 15 No Industry Agencies{15} 10 1,020,000 97 10 HM Treasury{12} 15 24,000 See note 15 No Valuation Office 15 35,000 87 15 Scottish Office 20 200,000 76 20 No National Archives of 10 4,499 87 10 Scotland Student Awards Agency 15 7,682 94 15 Scottish Courts Service 3 (Supreme Courts) Not collected {19}100 3 2 (Sheriff Courts) Not collected {19}96 2 Scottish Prison Service 20 6,347 97 20 Welsh Office 15 90,745 90 15 Yes _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Northern Ireland Departments and the NIO _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Department/Agency Target (working days) Total volume Percentage of responses Target 1999-2000 within target (working days) Department of Agriculture 15 5,944 94 15 Department of Economic 15 30,000 98 15 Development Department of Education 15 3,826 98 15 Department of Environment 15 26,773 95 15 Department of Finance and 15 66,646 99 15 Personnel Department of Health and 15 2,246 88 15 Social Services Northern Ireland Office{3} 15 205,221 89.6 15 Child Support Agency 10 1,559 79 10 Driver and Vehicle Licensing 3 14,344 100 3 Prison Service{4} 15 2,400 100 15 Public Record Office 14 3,000 98 14 Rate Collection Agency 10 50,442 89 10 Social Security Agency 15 21,451 93 15 Training and Employment 5 Not known 67 5 Agency{5} _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} This figure represents complaints only. {2} The Employment Service measures performance by asking an independent research company to sample 4,000 letters. The Chief Executive's Office received 657 letters and replied to 96 per cent. within a 15-day target (against a target of 95 per cent.). {3} Includes NIO Core, Forensic Science Agency, and Compensation Agency. Performance is calculated by a mixture of 100 per cent. monitoring and sampling. {4} Performance measured in two sampling periods. {5} Performance measured by sampling. {6} These figures represent correspondence received in the county courts only and exclude correspondence received at the Crown Court, High Court, Tribunals and Probate Offices. {7} All Ministerial Cases (MCs) are monitored, others are measured by sampling. Have now introduced a 15-day target for all correspondence. {8} Sample of 2,400 used to measure performance. {9} Chief Executive correspondence: 808 letters replied to, 97.7 per cent. within 20-days target. Private Office, PCA and Official Correspondence: 2,296 items replied to, 97.9 per cent. in 10-day target. These figures based on 100 per cent. monitoring. General correspondence monitored by monthly sample {10} Composite figures for all regional offices. {11} Total correspondence received is the number of items of post received by the Department's network of offices and includes internal mail. Performance is measured by monthly sampling and holding replies are not counted as having met the standard. {12} HM Treasury introduced a system to monitor correspondence in April this year. {13} The Benefits Agency replies to 82.5 per cent. of general correspondence in 10 days, 88.3 per cent. of letters advising them of change of circumstances within 6 days and 81 per cent. of complaints within 7 days. These figures exclude parliamentary correspondence. {14} This figure is based on returns monitored on new tracking systems for all correspondence and is not comparable with previous annual returns that were based on sampling. {15} This represents the volume of correspondence received by four of the DTI's agencies (Companies House, Insolvency Service, Patent Office and Radiocommunications Agency). {16} This represents all correspondence received centrally excluding campaign mail. {17} This represents correspondence addressed to Ministers by members of the pubic about policy matters. {18} Correspondence addressed to DCMS Ministers. {19} Sampled.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

92879; 335 c605-7W;335 c607-9W

Session

1998-99

Subjects

Complaints Executive agencies Correspondence Government departments Email Meetings Standards Telephone services

Contains statistics

Yes