Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 9
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates
Published 27 Jul 2023
Paragraph 68
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Cabinet Office has provided a plausible explanation for the GPA’s practice of charging departments rent on offices which the Government owns and has no intention of selling. This answer emphasises the value for money which the GPA is able to secure by acting as office property manager for multiple departments. As this value depends on scale, it is important that individual departments stay within these arrangements, rather than trying to find better deals from commercial landlords on a local basis. Nevertheless, to tie departments into these arrangements successfully, the GPA needs to be able to demonstrate that it is providing value for money. The Government Property Agency should commission an external review, to publish within twelve months, of the value for money of the service which it is providing to departments in return for its rental charges.
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 68, 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.