Chapter 3
Planning, Review of Performance and Stewardship
Corporate planning
3.1 In July each year RCEP will produce a Corporate Plan defining its strategic direction, priorities and goals over the next three years. The Plan will outline the rationale for subjects being considered for study, including the intended impacts of studies, provisional timetables, and possible indicators of performance. The Plan will also include more detailed objectives and targets for the forthcoming financial year, expressed in terms of outcomes rather than processes, and setting out the underlying assumptions.
3.2 The Corporate Plan should contain the financial management information relating to future years requested in the DETR annual business planning and Administration Budgeting Systems (ABS) guidance.
3.3 The Plan should be sent to the Head of EPSD. It will not be subject to Ministerial approval but, in addition to its use as a working tool for RCEP, it will assist DETR in fulfilling its financial management responsibilities by helping to assess whether resources allocated represent value for money.
Performance review
3.4 RCEP will publish annually and no later than August a review of its performance and activities over the past financial year. This will show how the resources made available to it have been expended and assess performance in relation to the objectives and targets set out in the previous Corporate Plan.
3.5 RCEP will produce an evaluation of each of its main studies three years after publication of the report, taking into account the objectives and any indicators of performance identified at the outset of each study. The conclusions of these evaluations will be published in its annual review of activities.
Financial Stewardship
3.6 The financial framework within which RCEP operates is described in Annex B.
3.7 RCEP will provide DETR not later than early June each year with a financial report showing actual expenditure in relation to provision for the previous financial year, and commenting on the specific financial management issues set out in paragraph 6 of Annex B.
3.8 The Head of EPSD must be satisfied with the financial report and in particular that the expenditure and receipts provided value for money and that action has been taken to remedy any weaknesses identified in previous reports. The Head of EPSD will record that he has received a satisfactory report from RCEP in the end year report for EPSD, which is prepared in June each year.
Published 26 February 2001
Environmental Protection Index
Defra Home Page