Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Conclusion 14
Eighth Report - Where Civil Servants Work: Planning for the future of the Government’s estates
Published 27 Jul 2023
Paragraph 93
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)
Recruiting staff to regional offices has the potential to open up the civil service as a career to a wider number of people. This can have benefits both for civil servants (enabling them to pursue a career in government without necessarily having to move to London) and for government policy (if it leads to greater understanding within departments about the differing needs of local communities). The Government’s thinking about how to achieve these benefits appears unclear, however. In particular, there is a risk that in viewing certain communities outside London as being more representative of the country as a whole, the Government is stereotyping communities outside the capital as all being essentially the same and all being radically different to the varied communities in London, overriding local differences in needs and interests. It remains to be seen how HM Treasury’s Darlington Economic Campus will improve policy-making for the remainder of the country.
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 93, 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.