I am pleased to announce that in the light of a strong performance outturn by the Insolvency Service in 2002–03 I have been able to reconsider the targets set for the current year.On the basis of an expected outturn of 83 per cent. in the User Satisfaction Index I set the agency a target for 2003–04 of a satisfaction level of 84 per cent. I am pleased to report that the final outturn for 2002–03 was in fact 85 per cent. and I have therefore increased the target for 2003–04 to 86 per cent.Similarly in the disqualification area, on the basis that the outturn for the average time taken to conclude disqualification proceedings would be 25.4 months I set the agency a target of 25 months for the current year. In fact the outturn was 24.3 months and I have therefore set the agency a target of 24 months for the current year. Also in the disqualification area the projected achievement against the percentage of cases concluded within 24 and 30 months was 43 per cent. and 82 per cent. respectively and I therefore set targets for this year of 45 per cent. and 84 per cent. In fact performance was 58 per cent. and 84 per cent. and I have therefore set increased targets of 60 per cent. and 85 per cent.
Finally 81 per cent. of redundancy claims were actioned within six weeks against a target of 80 per cent. and I have therefore set a new target of 82 per cent. for the current year.