Guidance is provided by the Treasury. The Office for Standards in Education has been set up to inspect, report and improve standards and quality of education. The Efficiency Unit undertakes a considerable number of evaluations of departmental and agency operations. Performance information is used by departments in the budget process to set and review budgets. The employment of the chief executive of an agency relates to the achievement of performance targets set in the annual performance agreement.
Individual pay is to be increasingly based on performance.
Input controls have been relaxed or abandoned. Agencies have flexibility to manage internal processes. Next Steps Agencies have been created to separate executive functions from policy formulation. Benchmarking is seen as important approach to improve efficiency of agencies. All agencies are required to prepare business or corporate plans.