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Lord Chancellors Dept

Answer

Tony Wright: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will list the performance targets that the Lord Chancellor's Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are required to meet, apart from those set out in the public service agreements for 1999-2002 and 2001-2004; and if he will specify for each target (a) who sets it and (b) who monitors achievement against it. [60474] Yvette Cooper: The Lord Chancellor's Department performance targets are all set out in our Public Service Agreement and supported by our Service Delivery Agreement. The targets and our current progress against them is set out in the Lord Chancellor's Department's Departmental Report (Cm 5408), which was published recently. The Court Service's performance targets are set by Ministers, and the Chief Executive reports directly to the Lord Chancellor. The current targets are set out in the following table. We have three executive non-departmental public bodies. The Legal Services Commission (LSC) came into being in April 2000. Its targets are set out each year in its corporate plan, which is approved by the Lord Chancellor and laid before the Houses of Parliament. The Commission's chair reports progress and achievements directly to the Lord Chancellor. The LSC also reports progress in its annual report; its first report was published in July 2001. The second annual report, published on 22 July, reports against the 2001-02 to 2003-04 corporate plan. In its annual report, the Commission also reports against four categories of business performance targets: applications processed; bills paid; correspondence, appeals and reviews of civil funding decisions. The Commission's second corporate plan, for the period 2002-03 to 2003-04, sets out its 54 performance targets. These are broken down into 24 Community Legal Service targets, 13 Criminal Defence Service targets and 17 targets on the work of the Commission. These are set out in the following list. The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) has been in existence since April 2001 and will be publishing its first annual report later this year. CAFCASS's corporate plan for 2002-06, published earlier this year, includes the development of five key performance targets for use in the future. These are laid out in the following table. The Information Commissioner sets her own performance targets which are set out in the Commissioner's annual reports, the latest of which was published in June 2002. These are laid out in the following table. The Lord Chancellor's Department monitors achievement against the targets through the supply of quarterly reports by the Office of the Commissioner. Court Service key performance indicators _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Target KP1 1 The percentage improvement in the level of 2 per cent. improvement on the current satisfaction to court and tribunal users level of 79 per cent. KP1 2 The percentage of civil cases heard within 75 per cent. target (from allocation to track to hearing) KP1 3 The percentage of value recovered of 76 pence in the pound enforceable warrants in the county court KP1 4 The percentage of public law Children Act 70 per cent. cases dealt with in target (from commencement to final order) KP1 5 The percentage of defendants/appellants in 78 per cent. the Crown court whose cases commence within target time KP1 6 The percentage of asylum appeals completed 65 per cent. (through both the Immigration and Appellate Authority) within four months KP1 7 The percentage improvement in the European 10 per cent. improvement by March 2004 foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model score for the Court Service _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Legal Services Commission CLS--Access to services: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Commence Family Information and Advice Network pilots Secure a year-on-year increase in the number of CLS Information Points. Commence further telephone advice and specialist support service pilot contracts Ensure that by April 2002 the CLS Directory of General and Specialist help services is confined to Quality Mark holders Issue proposals for the allocation of resources under the replacement General Civil Contract 2003-04 Secure a year on year increase in the number of CLS information points. CLS--Service quality: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Implement the Specialist Quality Mark (April 2002) Implement Quality Mark standards for the Bar (certifying 100 chambers), mediation and websites Complete peer review pilot (January 2003) Complete cost compliance audit of all contracted suppliers by March 2003, reducing the number of suppliers with a `poor' rating Complete pilot supplier development projects in central and east London and Birmingham (March 2003) Establish whether targets can be set for numbers of minority ethnic firms with contracts by March 2003 Introduce remuneration policy changes:- grants for training contracts payment of registration fees for specialist and generalist panels 2003-04 To ensure that 95 per cent. of expenditure from the CLS Fund is on work carried out by quality assured suppliers by March 2004. To increase the percentage of funding from Community Legal Service Fund and funding members of CLS partnerships going to CLS providers of legal services holding the Quality Mark. CLS--Co-ordinate service and provision: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 75 per cent. of population covered by a CLS Partnerships strategic plan by March 2003. Publish first report on the CLS Partnership performance indicators. 2003-04 Achieve 100 per cent. population coverage of CLS Partnerships in England and Wales by March 2004. CLS--Value for money: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Payments to suppliers by March 2003 not to exceed the value of claims by more than 2.5 per cent. Make amendments to the General Civil Contract: Simplifying the taking of sanctions against suppliers not complying with the contract. Promoting value for money in not-for-profit agency contracts. Bring 95 per cent. of new qualifying high cost cases under individual case contract. Introduce and monitor value for money targets for social welfare law, legal help and non-family legal representation. 2003-04 Secure a year on year increase in the number of disputes resolved with funding from the CLS Fund through ADR including mediation. By March 2004 reduce CLS cost inflation to 0.5 per cent. p.a. for: the average cost of very high cost cases (civil and criminal). the average cost per case of legal help in a) immigration, and b) all other work. CDS--Access to services: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 LSC ensures access to quality assured criminal defence services: Rota solicitors accept 80 per cent. of police station duty solicitor requests. Police station duty solicitors to contact client within 45 minutes in 90 per cent. of cases. 100 per cent. coverage of magistrates' court sessions requiring a duty solicitor. Introduce targeted remuneration policy changes: pay for duty solicitor accreditation. grants for training contracts. 2003-04 Ensure that by March 2004 90 per cent. of people in police stations requesting the service of a duty solicitor receive the service within 45 minutes. Ensure by March 2004 100 per cent. access to a quality assured solicitor for people charged with criminal offences and meeting the interests of justice tests. Ensure that by March 2004 all magistrates' courts are covered by the duty solicitor service. Ensure that 95 per cent. of expenditure from the CDS Fund is on work carried out by quality assured suppliers by March 2004. CDS--Value for money: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Introduce new payment regime for police station duty solicitor claims (April 2002). Extend the counsel graduated fee scheme in the Crown court to cover all cases with trials of up to 25 days in length. Ensure payments to all suppliers under the General Criminal Contract do not exceed the sums billed by more than 5-10 per cent. during the year. Complete cost compliance audits of all contracted suppliers by March 2003, reducing the number of suppliers receiving a `poor' rating. 2003-04 Transfer accountability from the Court Service for legal aid in the Crown and Higher courts (April 2003). By March 2004 reduce CDS cost inflation to 0.5 per cent. p.a. for: the average cost of very high cost cases. the average cost of all CDS representation (excluding very high cost cases). CDS--Contribute to CJS Plan: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 to 2003-04 Contribute to CJS strategic targets: Reduce by 2004 the time from charge to disposal of defendants Improve the standard by which the CJS meets the rights of defendants. Improve the level of public confidence in the CJS by 2004, including that of ethnic minority communities. LSC--Ensure sufficient asylum legal services: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Reduce the volume of applications for asylum refused on grounds of non-compliance with application rules. Reduce the number of adjournments of appeals before the adjudicators because of the lack of representation. LSC--Ensure actions and decisions are justifiable to those affected: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Put in place mechanisms to ensure equal opportunities are promoted by the Commission's priority decision making activities by 31 May 2002. Develop and apply an organisational standard for consulting users and stakeholders, including those with special needs. LSC--Quality and efficiency: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Improve levels of supplier satisfaction with: Telephone contact. Correspondence handling. Communication about important issues. Consistency of decision making. Improve the levels of consistency in: Audit decision making. Funding and bill assessment work. Cash flow to suppliers. Attain published customer service standards, including: reduce the time files are held for audit. providing prompt feedback on cost compliance audits so it is co-ordinated with the management audit or, where this is not possible, provided within 28 days of the completion of the file audit. LSC--Developing people: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Achieve improved staff satisfaction with: How people are helped to understand their performance. Reward. Working environment. Training and development opportunities. Improve recruitment and selection--measured by the number of new staff who complete their probation period successfully. Improve quality of personal objective setting. Complete an independent verification of LSC's position within the labour market. Ensure all staff have a personal development plan. Deliver an average of nine days training per full time employee. Put in place mechanisms to ensure equal opportunities are promoted for staff by May 2002. LSC--Developing systems: Key objectives and performance targets 2002-03 Develop MI systems for: Statutory charge. Debtors. Damages on deposit. Complete supplier information and audit performance management system (Aug 2002). Migrate the core business systems to a new IT platform (Jan 2003) CAFCASS _________________________________________________________________________________________________. KPI 1 Performance against CAFCASS National Standards. We will establish in 2002-03 performance benchmarks and targets for evaluation of service provision. KPI 2 Satisfaction with CAFCASS services. We will establish in 2002-03 ways of measuring satisfaction of children, families and other stakeholders with the CAFCASS service. KPI 3 Timeliness and quality of service to the courts. We will establish our performance baseline by the end of 2001-02 and in 2002-03 establish measures of timeliness and quality of the service provided to courts. KPI 4 Value for money targets for service. We will undertake work in 2002-03 to establish measures of value for money. KPI 5 Human Resources. We will establish in 2002-03 measure of performance, alongside development of the CAFCASS Human Resources Strategy. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Information Commissioner output measures and performance indicators _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Estimate and targets Output measure/Performance indicator 2002-03 2003-04 Notification Number of weighted transactions processed 361,223 237,155 Number of weighted transactions processed {1}82.61 {1}83.77 per officer day Assessment and complaints Total requests for assessment received 13,500 14,000 Complaints not investigated -- -- Inquiries handled 6,548 6,790 No assessment made 945 980 Sub-total 7,493 7,770 Assessments completed 6,480 6,720 Complaints investigated and closed 120 120 Sub-total 6,600 6,840 Contact with our customers Telephone inquiries received by the 57,000 57,000 information line Calls received per line hour 9.36 9.36 Data protection--public awareness Percentage of large data controllers aware 85.0 86.0 of subjects' rights Percentage of small data controllers aware 60.0 62.0 of subjects' rights Percentage of data subjects aware of own 42.0 42.0 rights Freedom of information--public awareness Among the public (percentage) 15.0 15.0 Within public authorities (percentage) 25.0 35.0 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Dependent on increased staffing to handle current level of telephone calls.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

389 c1295-301W;389 c1293-9W; 60474

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Government departments Monitoring Lord Chancellor's Department Standards

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk