Appendix 2
CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT COMMITTEE
REVIEW OF REPORTS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND
RESPONSES, 1997-2000
First Special Report, Session 2000-01
THE DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND
SPORT AND ITS QUANGOS
MEMORANDUM BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE
MEDIA AND SPORT
Revisions to Funding Agreements
1. Copies of funding agreements for the bodies sponsored
by DCMS, incorporating revisions made after the first year of
each agreement, have been deposited in the Libraries of the House
(copies were also sent to the Committee Chairman). Only minor
amendments have been made, agreed between DCMS and the bodies
concerned, such as the addition of target figures following research
in the first year to establish baselines.
2. The funding agreement is a living planning instrument
that in its essentials remains firm throughout the three-year
planning period, but that needs to accommodate refinements agreed
between the parties in the light of experience. Rather than using
Parliamentary answers whenever minor changes are made to the Agreements,
the Department believes it would provide greater clarity to inform
Parliament each year of the new Agreements being put in place,
including those for the 2001-04 period and also to inform Parliament
of any major changes to them during the period.
QUEST Reports
3. All QUEST reports have been published without
amendment by the Department.
Monitoring of NDPB Performance against Funding
Agreement Targets
4. Since our SR2000 bid went in before the end of
the first year of the funding agreements, we had only early, interim
indications to inform the bid. However, as the monitoring information
becomes more comprehensive and robust it will provide one of the
key inputs to the policy-making process, shedding light on the
contribution that each sector makes, or can make, to Government
objectives and so helping us make the right level of investment
in particular areas. As for the funding of individual quangos,
good or bad performance should not be crudely translated into
more or less money, but how an NDPB performs will be one of the
factors considered in deciding future allocations.
April 201
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