Catalogue description Department of Health and Social Security: Review of Works Function: Registered Files RWF Series

The Review of the Works Function was carried out by a Review Team led by Mr N Illingworth (Assistant Secretary, DHSS), and a Steering Committee chaired by Dr N J B Evans (Deputy Secretary, DHSS). It was set up in 1983, to review the division of responsibility between the DHSS and Health Service authorities for managing the NHS estate and annual works expenditure, and to determine how those responsibilities could best be discharged. It focussed particularly on: ensuring maximum value for expenditure; optimising the use of resources in pursuit of effective and efficient services for patients; securing efficient and effective relationships between the authorities involved; recognition of the parliamentary and statutory responsibilities of the Secretary of State and the Accounting Officer. An interim report, submitted in 1984, concluded there was considerable scope for improving estate management and for recognising the estate as a resource in planning the delivery of patient care. Ministers subsequently commissioned further studies on various aspects of the report, with a view to formulating firm proposals for action.