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10 Jul 2003 : Column 959W—continued
Mobile Phones
Mr. Flight: To ask the Solicitor-General what the cost was to her Department of mobile phones supplied to Ministers and officials in each of the years since 1997, broken down by (a) price of apparatus and (b) cost of usage. [123071]
The Solicitor-General: The Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers does not keep separate figures for the cost of apparatus from that of usage. Costs since 1997 are as follows:
| Year ending 31 March | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 1,724 |
| 1998 | 2,270 |
| 1999 | 2,739 |
| 2000 | 2,454 |
| 2001 | 2,223 |
| 2002 | 3,295 |
| 2003 | 4,405 |
The Crown Prosecution Service cannot provide a separate breakdown of costs for purchasing contract mobile phones. The cost is included in the overall contract charge. The CPS also uses a few "Pay As You Go" mobile phones. These, together with the associated
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costs, are paid for individually by CPS Areas. In respect of the cost of usage, information is only available from October 1998 when the CPS established a national contract for telephony services. The overall contract charge for mobile phones is:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1998 (from October) | 11.95 |
| 1999 | 5,445.72 |
| 2000 | 28,621.79 |
| 2001 | 77,356.20 |
| 2002 | 138,086.75 |
| 2003 (to end June) | 76,881.38 |
The cost to the Serious Fraud Office for providing mobile phones to officials does not include the costs of personal calls. The full cost per year since 1997, is detailed.
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | (10)2002 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network and call charges | 11,554 | 4,205 | 5,680 | 5,981 | 6,437 | 7,536 |
| Purchases | 316 | 274 | 970 | 1,261 | 1,587 | 823 |
| Total cost | 11,87 0 | 4,479 | 6,650 | 7,242 | 8,024 | 8,359 |
(10) provisional
As part of the Protocol between HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and Crown Prosecution Service, it was agreed the Crown Prosecution Service would pay for all mobile phones supplied to inspectors. Costs since 2000 are broken down as follows:
- a total of 11 mobile phones within HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate
monthly rental of £11.14 each (overall annual cost £1,470.48)
an approximate cost of calls per annum is £750.00. This works out to an average cost of £5.68 per phone, per month.
| Year ending 31 March | Total |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 4,766 |
| 1998 | 4,809 |
| 1999 | 6,182 |
| 2000 | 8,981 |
| 2001 | 10,122 |
| 2002 | 7,869 |
| 2003 | 12,735 |
Performance Targets
Gregory Barker: To ask the Solicitor-General if she will list the performance targets that (a) her Department and (b) its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are required to meet; and if she will specify for each target (i) who sets it and (ii) who monitors achievement against it. [120869]
The Solicitor-General [holding answer 24 June 2003]: Key performance targets are agreed as part of the Spending Review and the latest set were published in Spending Review 2002: Public Service Agreements 2003–06 (Cm 5571). Targets are monitored with HM Treasury and progress is reported regularly.
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Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, along with other criminal justice agencies, is subject to a Public Service Agreement for which the Home Secretary, the Lord Chancellor and the Attorney General are jointly responsible. The Public Service Agreement prescribes three targets for the criminal justice system: to narrow the justice gap by bringing more offences to justice and reducing ineffective trials; to improve public confidence in the criminal justice system; and to increase value for money. These are overarching targets applying to the police, the courts and the Crown Prosecution Service. Day to day delivery is the responsibility of all of these agencies, working together in partnership through Local Criminal Justice Boards established across each of the 42 operational areas of the criminal justice system.
Underlying these targets are a number of measures specific to the Crown Prosecution Service, which demonstrate the contribution of the service to the criminal justice system as a whole and govern the performance of its 42 areas. The targets for 2003–06 are as follows:
- To reduce by 5 per cent. in 2003–04 the proportion of unsuccessful outcomes in defendant cases in both the magistrates courts and the Crown court. Further targets are to be agreed for 2004–06;
To increase the number of recorded offences brought to justice for which the offender was a persistent offender at the point of charge;
To reduce by 27 per cent. the proportion of ineffective trials in the magistrates courts and in the Crown court; and
To introduce an agreed shadow charging scheme in partnership with the police in all areas between March 2003 and December 2003.
- To ensure, year on year, that at least 95 per cent. of initial and continuing review decisions comply with the Code for Crown Prosecutors;
To increase by five percentage points current CPS compliance with its primary and secondary disclosure responsibilities;
To maintain year on year the average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders at or below seventy one days; and
To increase year on year the number of areas that have regular engagement with groups that support victims of domestic violence and with minority ethnic communities.
- Specific measures in support of this target are under development.
In addition, the service has a number of targets which are not directly related to the Public Service Agreement, as follows:
- The Crown Prosecution Service is committed, along with its criminal justice partners, to delivery of agreed timeliness targets from charge or laying of information to completion for a range of cases in both the magistrates courts and the Crown court;
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Subject to the successful rollout of the Compass case tracking system, all Crown Prosecution Service areas to input data providing the capacity to report on the progress and outcome of cases involving allegations of domestic violence, racially and religiously motivated offences, homophobic crime, rape and child abuse;
To reply to 95 per cent. of complaints within 10 days of receipt and to 95 per cent. of inquiries from Members of Parliament within 15 days; and
Additional measures are under development related to the timeliness and quality of direct communication with victims.
Performance is reported on a quarterly basis to the newly created Business Development Directorate, which has responsibility for monitoring progress towards targets both at local and national level, and for raising with the 42 areas both matters of concern and aspects of good practice which emerge from the resulting record of delivery.
The Serious Fraud Office does not have any agencies or non-departmental bodies. Current performance targets are as follows:
- a caseload of 110 active cases (including appeals) within allocated resources;
a long-run average investigation time of 16.5 months;
a long-run average prosecution stage length of 14.5 months.
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has clear objectives set out in its Strategic and Business Plan 2003–06 which is available on their website at www.hmcpsi.gov.uk. The objectives of HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate support the Government's overarching objectives for the criminal justice system and the linked Public Service targets.
However, no separate performance targets have been developed for HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.
The Plan is approved by the Attorney-General and progress is monitored by the Attorney-General's Advisory Board.
Treasury Solicitor's Department
The Treasury Solicitor's Department is required to meet the following performance targets:
- (a) to introduce a professionally informed client survey methodology for all the Agency's legal work by September 2003;
(b) to meet client satisfaction levels as measured by survey results of:
at least 95 per cent. for Advisory Divisions
at least 90 per cent. for Litigation Division and ECCG;
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(c) to recover from clients the full operating costs for chargeable services;
(d) to maintain corporate staff overheads costs at no more than 15 per cent. of total staff costs;
(e) to reduce sick absence per staff year by 30 per cent. by 2003–04 (base year 1998–99);
(f) to achieve a level of ill-health retirements by 2005 consistent with or better than the best quartile target of 3.72 retirements per 1,000 employees;
(g) to pay all undisputed invoices in accordance with terms or within 30 days.
Achievement against all targets is monitored by the Department's Board and the Attorney-General; and reported to Parliament and the Public in the Law Officer's spring Departmental Report and the Treasury Solicitor's Department's Annual Report.
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