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Foreword page

Introduction

1 Delivering Better Public Service: Progress

Objective A: To promote enterprise, innovation and increased productivity

Objective B: To make the most of the UK's science, engineering and technology

Objective C: To develop strong, competitive markets within a regulatory framework which promotes fairness and sustainability

Objective D: Enhanced competitiveness of Britain's companies through overseas sales and investments; and a continuing level of quality foreign direct investment

Section E: Managing investments, assets and liabilities

Section F: Agencies and related organisations

Annexes (Including Main Estimates)

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Bibliography

Other aspects of managing the Department

Resource allocation and management

1.34. The Department plans how it will achieve its objectives and targets within its overall resource budgets for programme, administration and capital costs via the annual Resource Allocation and Management round. Resource requirements for the year ahead are submitted to the Finance and Resource Management Directorate which puts forward recommendations on allocations to the Departmental Board and then Ministers for approval.

Resource accounting and budgeting

1.35. The Department’s expenditure and budgeting will be managed on a fully resource basis from April 2001; this change is reflected in the tables at Annex B. The first set of audited consolidated resource accounts for the financial year 1999-00 were published in December and are available on the DTI website (38). They provide details of the Department’s activities during the 1999-00 financial year and its Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2000. The Department also issued audited resource accounts for the UKAEA Superannuation Scheme for 1999-00. The National Audit Office issued unqualified audit opinions on both sets of accounts. During 2000-01, the Department has undertaken significant preparatory work in respect of resource budgeting and achieved the relevant milestones set by HM Treasury. Shadow resource estimates have been produced for 2000-01 and the Department is monitoring its financial performance on both a cash and a resource basis. This will ensure that all financial processes and systems have been fully tested so that the Department’s finances can be managed on a resource basis from 2001-02.

Accountability

1.36. The Permanent Secretary, as Accounting Officer, is accountable to Parliament for the Department’s expenditure and its activities. In line with the best practice of corporate governance, he is supported by the members of the Departmental Board, including the non-executive member, Mair Barnes, former Managing Director of Woolworths. He is also advised by the Audit Committee, chaired by Philip Sellers, an independent businessman.

1.37. The Department has an internal audit function which provides assurance to senior management about the management of the Department’s risks achieved through a programme of risk-based system audits, audit reviews and risk workshops as well as advice on risks and controls, especially in relation to the development of new systems. This work is carried out in collaboration with Ernst & Young with whom the Department has renewed its strategic partnership. Ernst & Young conduct a proportion of the audit programme, contribute to the ongoing development of the audit methodology and participate in a programme of skills transfer. The National Audit Office is the Department’s external auditor.

1.38. The Public Accounts Committee published no reports in the Department’s area of responsibility in 2000.

Greening operations

1.39. The Department continues to make progress in reducing its environmental impacts through a range of green housekeeping measures. An Environmental Management System (EMS) which is accredited to the ISO 14001 standard is run by the Estates & Facilities Management Directorate. It incorporates monitoring, control and regular audits to ensure continued effectiveness of the System and to track progress towards its targets. In addition, all new entrants and contractors to the Directorate are given training to increase their awareness of environmental issues at work.

1.40. The Department is improving year on year in all areas of energy management. The target to reduce energy usage by 5% from 1995-96 figures by March 2000 was met on time. The Department also placed contracts for electricity supply so that 26% of power now comes from renewable energy sources. During 2000, 86% of paper bought by the Department was recycled meeting its target of 75% for the year.

Machinery of Government

1.41. On 1 April 2000, the responsibilities of the Oil and Gas Royalties Office for administration of the royalty paid on production from older fields on the UK Continental Shelf (those approved before April 1982) were transferred from DTI to the Inland Revenue’s Oil Taxation Office (OTO). The OTO administers petroleum revenue tax and corporation tax for the industry. The transfer will allow development of a more streamlined operation based on the substantial similarities between the two areas of work. Responsibility for royalty policy remains with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

1.42. The Directorate of Civil Nuclear Security, the government's nuclear security regulator, became an independent unit within DTI on 1 October 2000 and was renamed the Office for Civil Nuclear Security.

Publicity and advertising

1.43. Most of the Department’s expenditure on advertising and publicity is authorised by the relevant programme budget holders alongside other items of expenditure in that policy area (39). Decisions on the most effective publicity options benefit from advice from central publicity and new media specialists, or local teams of publicity and presentation advisers. There is a small centrally held budget for publicity expenditure. This amounted to £635,000 in 1999-00. The estimated out-turn for the current financial year is £836,000 with a similar annual figure being forecast to the end of 2003.

Private sector sponsorship of Departmental activities

1.44. The DTI has updated its internal guidelines on sponsorships received from the private sector, following recommendations by the Committee on Standards in Public Life chaired by Lord Neill. The revised guidelines provide best practice advice for managing all stages of sponsorships so that the Department takes a consistent and transparent approach to these kind of relationships with the private sector.

FIGURE 1.4: Performance against gas, electricity and water consumption targets

2000 Gas consumption for the London HQ estate

	Gas consumption
	Gas target

2000 Electricity consumption for the London HQ estate

	Electricity consumption
	Electricity target

2000 Water consumption for the London HQ estate

	Water consumption
	Water target

FIGURE 1.5: Private sector sponsorship contributions to DTI activities 2000-01 (40)

Event/Purpose (41)		Sponsor		Amount
Firework Safety Campaign		Asda and Sainsburys		£32,000
SPARK (magazine for 11-14 year girls)		WISE campaign (Women into Science & Engineering)		£20,000
Ukon4b: E-Commerce Awards		BT, NatWest, Sun Microsystems, ICL/Kainous, Welsh Development Agency, Compaq, Lucent, Miller Freeman, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Sphinx CST, Computer Associates, BLNC/BLs Suffolk & Herts		£100,000

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(38) Department of Trade Industry Consolidated Resource Accounts 1999-2000, December 2000. (HC11. Stationery Office. Available at http://www.dti.gov.uk
(39) See in particular Chapter 3, Figure 3.5, for publicity expenditure by the Small Business Service, and Chapter 12, paragraph 12.5, for publicity expenditure relating to the National Minimum Wage.
(40) The Department is currently developing systems for collecting sponsorship data and information in this table may not be comprehensive.
(41) See also paragraph 11.[32] in Chapter 11 - Consumer Policy, for information on private sector contributions to consumer safety campaigns.

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