Letter from the Second Clerk of the Committee
to the Head, Parliamentary Relations Team, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office
The Foreign Affairs Committee has had an opportunity
to consider the FCO's Autumn Performance Report and the FCO's
CSR07 Value for Money Delivery Agreement, and has asked me to
write with the following comments and questions.
PERFORMANCE AGAINST
PSA TARGETS
1. What events have occurred in the past
six months to cause the FCO to change its assessment of progress
against the following indicator from the 2007 Departmental Report
to the 2007 Autumn Performance Report:
i) PSA 7 Islam target B3—government accountability
indicator (shifted from "slippage" in the Departmental
Report to "on course" in the Autumn Performance Report).
2. Why has the FCO assessed its performance
against the targets, PSA 9 B5—birth registrations and PS9
B6—death registrations as being "on course", when
data for 2006-07 indicate that the FCO's performance was below
its targets in these areas?
3. The Autumn Performance Report states
that the FCO is slipping against its target for the issuing of
overseas passports (PSA 9 B1) because of the introduction of the
Biometric Passport (p 34). The Report notes that Department's
overall performance in this area has improved recently as working
practices have adapted. Is the FCO expecting to meet the target
for 2007-08?
4. What are the visa and consular service's
new targets under the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)?
5. How is progress against the objective
underpinning the SR 2004 target, PSA 7 "Islam target—to
increase understanding of and engagement with Islamic countries
and communities" to be measured in the period covered by
the 2007 CSR?
6. Some departments such as the Treasury
and the Department for Work and Pensions have published indicators
for their Departmental Strategic Objectives (DSOs). When will
the FCO publish indicators for its DSOs? To what extent will there
be an overlap between indicators for the PSAs and indicators for
the DSOs?
DATA SYSTEMS
TO ASSESS
PSA TARGETS
7. The National Audit Office (NAO) has assessed
that the data systems which are used to assess three of your PSA
targets are "not fit for purpose" (Fourth Validation
Compendium Report: Volume 2, Report by the Comptroller and Auditor
General, 19 December 2007, p 23-26). What checks are you carrying
out to ensure that the data systems which will be used to measure
the targets under the 2007 CSR will be fit for purpose?
8. The NAO reports that the data system
underlying the reporting of progress against the target for effective
and efficient clearance services (PSA 9a) is currently not fit
for purpose because it excludes the speed of processing at UKVisas'
commercial partners (used in their outsourced operations), which
deal with more than half all Visa applications (p 25). What is
the FCO doing to measure and monitor the speed of processing visas
at UK Visas' commercial partners?
9. The NAO reports that "the data system
underlying the reporting [for the satisfaction with consular services]
is not fit for purpose because conducting a survey relating to
only one randomly selected week in the year does not give an accurate
picture of satisfaction across the whole year" (p 26). What
is the FCO doing to improve the validity of the survey which it
uses to measure customer satisfaction with the consular services?
EFFICIENCY TARGETS—2004
COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING
REVIEW
10. The Autumn Performance Report states
that efficiency gains were estimated at £122.4 million by
the end of September 2007. Of that amount, how much was cashable?
EFFICIENCY TARGETS—2007
COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING
REVIEW
11. The FCO has now published its Value
for Money Delivery Agreement which gives an outline of how the
FCO will generate its efficiency savings. Please could we have
a schedule which gives a more detailed breakdown of the individual
projects along with projected efficiency savings. The Committee
would treat this in confidence and is aware that it would be provisional
and subject to change.
12. The 2007 Pre-Budget Report & CSR
states that FCO will identify value for money reforms that will
make annual efficiency savings of £144 million by 2010-11.
The FCO's Value for Money Delivery Agreement gives an account
of how the FCO will generate £86.5 million saving (shared
services programme—£16 million, IT zero-based review—£9.5
million, improved procurement project—£11 million,
Europe zero-based review—£9 million, BBC World Service—£23
million, British Council—£18 million). How does the
FCO plan to generate the additional £57.5 million efficiency
gains, that the Value for Money Delivery Agreement does not account
for?
SHARED SERVICES
13. The creation of Shared Service Centres
is set to deliver £16 million efficiency gains and the FCO
aims to share processes across the FCO's global network of over
240 overseas posts. (i) What is your estimate of headcount reductions
that will occur as a result of Shared Service Centres being set
up? (ii) How have staff been prepared for their introduction?
(iii) Where will the Centres be located?
14. The FCO's VFM delivery agreement states
that the Shared Service Centres Project will initially focus on
finance and procurement processes and will in a later phase expand
to cover HR processes. What steps are you taking to ensure that
the quality of services, particularly with regard to HR processes
does not fall as a result of them being provided from a distance?
15. You have previously told us that the
separate "FCO-DFID Shared Service Delivery plan seeks to
increase the proportion of co-located offices by over 10% and
the proportion of DFID staff in co-located offices by over 25%
by the end of the CSR07 period." Which offices are intended
to become co-located with DFID?
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ZERO BASED
REVIEW) PROJECT
16. The FCO's VFM delivery agreement states
that the re-procurement exercise of the Telecommunications Network
is due to commence with a view to re-tendering and letting a new
telecommunications contract by May 2010 and that "significant
savings have been negotiated with our existing telecommunications
supplier, Global Crossing". How does the FCO seek to reduce
costs through re-tendering its telecommunications contract, for
instance will it request different or reduced services?
EUROPE ZERO
BASED REVIEW
17. The FCO Delivery Agreement states that
the Europe' Zero-Based Review will generate £9 million efficiencies
through identifying changes to the management of FCO estates,
transport and other support services, focusing the work of individual
missions more tightly on key priorities and finding ways of deploying
staff more flexibly to meet changing demand. Can you provide specific
examples of how the FCO intends to do this?
BBC WORLD SERVICE
18. The FCO's Delivery Agreement states that
the BBC World Service is committed to achieve £23 million
of value for money savings over the CSR period through a number
of individual efficiency initiatives and possibly "reductions
in some higher cost output which do not have significant audience
impact". What are these potential areas of reductions in
higher cost output?
I would be most grateful to receive a response
by 3 April 2008.
19 February 2008
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