Cabinet Office

Ensure departments deliver better regulation through:

1. full compliance with the RIA process; and
2. delivering the commitments in the Regulatory Reform Action Plan, including over 60 Regulatory Reform Orders by 2005.
   (Objective 2)

We will achieve this through:

• high level bilateral meetings with Regulatory Reform Ministers
• scrutiny of departmental compliance
• regular meetings with departmental regulatory impact units.

We will:

• Publish a baseline for compliance at consultation stage in March 2003, for annual update;
• Press Departments to deliver fully against the Regulatory Reform Action Plan by end-2005, with the following milestones:
  one quarter by March 2003; and
  two thirds by March 2004

HM Treasury and the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit will work with departments to:

1. ensure they have in place effective plans to deliver their PSA targets, with robust milestones and trajectories;
2. monitor departments' performance against their plans and their PSA targets through information gathering, regular meetings at official level, and supporting ministerial discussions; and
3. ensure necessary corrective action is taken when delivery is not on track.

The Office of the E-Envoy has set up an e-Government Delivery Programme (e-GDP), to bring together a range of initiatives across the Centre and departments to support and facilitate departmental delivery of e-enabled services. 
The e-GDP will achieve this through:

• Identifying key services to be e-enabled and working with departments to ensure these are delivered in a way that leads to high take up;
• Analysing customer research to form the basis for working with departments to develop packages of services that represent a compelling proposition that will encourage high levels of use;
• Removing the barriers to departmental delivery through cross-cutting work streams, focused on addressing key issues;
• Providing common infrastructure solutions to increase value for money and decrease time-to-market;
• Reporting progress by departments towards the 2005 target, through regular monitoring of both electronic availability of services and use of online resources, published in an annual UK online report;
• Establishing and maintaining governance arrangements, for the programme as a whole, to monitor progress and address issues, through an e-GDP Board, the Minister for e-Government, PSX(E), e-Cabinet meetings and regular reports to the Prime Minister.

The programme will be subject to regular external review.

We will deliver this by:

• Providing a centre of expertise on diversity and managing relationships with key stakeholder Departments. This will include:
  
  - building a current picture of progress towards SCS targets, departments' policy interventions, and plans to 2005 by March 2003 and providing central support as appropriate; and
  - working with Departments to help them implement employment aspects of new equality legislation, including the Race relations (Amendment) Act and EU Employment and Race Directives (Article 13).

Additionally, we will:

• Provide leadership development and support to bring on under-represented talent, including:
  
  - Evaluate and promote the Elevator Partnerships scheme for women (completion March 2003),
  - run Pathways - a leadership development programme aimed at minority ethnic staff (programme running annually)
  - refocus the Disability Bursary scheme to ensure it supports our objective to bring on more disabled staff into the SCS (by March 2003 and programme run annually.

We will work with Government Departments and the wider public services to increase their customer focus and embed the four principles of standards & accountability, devolution & delegation, flexibility, and choice, by:

• Promoting customer focus and the Government's four principles of public services reform, and conducting regular surveys of senior public services managers and senior civil servants on perceived progress in embedding them.
• Promoting principles and an -Ideal Framework’ for the collection and use of customer feedback in key public services and reporting regularly to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Ministers on progress towards them.
• Running a series of specific joint projects with Departments to support their efforts to embed the four principles in policy-making and service delivery.