Technology Strategy Board: Triennial Review
House of Lords

Baroness Wilcox (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Business, Innovation and Skills; Conservative)

My right honourable friend the Minister for Universities and Science (David Willetts) has today made the following Statement.

We will shortly commence a triennial review of the Technology Strategy Board.

The coalition Government made a commitment to review public bodies, with the aim of increasing accountability for actions carried out on behalf of the state.

The Technology Strategy Board has been selected by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as one of the non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) for which the review will commence during the first year of the programme (2011-12).

The review will be conducted as set out in Cabinet Office guidance, in two stages.

The first stage will:

identify and examine the key functions of the Technology Strategy Board and assess how these functions contribute to the core business of BIS;assess the requirement for these to continue;if continuing, then assess delivery options and where the conclusion is that a particular function is still needed examine how this function might best be delivered, including a cost and benefits analysis where appropriate; andif one of these options is continuing delivery through the Technology Strategy Board, then make an assessment against the Government's "three tests": technical function; political impartiality; need for independence from Ministers.

If the outcome of stage 1 is that delivery should continue through the Technology Strategy Board then the second stage of the project will be to ensure that it is operating in line with the recognised principles of good corporate governance, using the Cabinet Office "comply or explain" standard approach.

The report of the review will be placed in the Libraries of the House.