Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Conclusion 4
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates
Published 27 Jul 2023
Paragraph 42
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Planning for the future of the Government’s estates All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Cabinet Office has made high-profile statements about the economic benefits to be delivered by Places for Growth, referring to research which supports its estimates. However, it has only just published information about this research, and this information was not written for easy digestion by the general public. This is a clear example of bad practice, as it prevents Parliament and the wider public from comprehensively reviewing the arguments and evidence underlying the alleged benefits of the programme. The Cabinet Office should, alongside its response to this report, publish details of the research underpinning its claims of economic benefits in a form which clearly explains how the claims made in previous Places to Growth press releases have been calculated. Moreover, the Government Analysis Function should, within six months, publish a statement on its website and write to heads of the analysis function within all government departments urging them to bring the transparency requirements of all government analysts into line with the best practice guidelines set by the Office for Statistics Regulation. This should make clear that, whenever economic research is referred to in press notices and ministerial statements, departments should present links to a published form of this research.
From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates (HC 793), paragraph 42, 27 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 October 2023.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states that it supports enhanced transparency and has "accepted recommendations where appropriate", while pointing to existing mechanisms on others and leaving some decisions with individual departments.
- On programme documentation, the Government says it "will publish relevant programme documentation" for Places for Growth and the Plan for London, and "will refresh the appropriate pages" to include purpose, objectives and critical success factors.
- On Cabinet meetings outside London, it states that planning must balance regional benefits with ministerial parliamentary availability and taxpayers' money, and that "for security reasons" it does not announce when and where meetings will take place.
- On civil service headcount, it says the policy of reducing numbers by 91,000 FTE "would not be pursued" and that any reductions are "for individual departments to determine".
- On the Government Property Agency's value for money, it states the Agency delivers "excellent value for money" and is undertaking a benefits review against its original business case, with no external review commitment stated.