ONS relocation 'needs urgent review'
Monday, 23 Jul 2007 11:44
MPs critical of Treasury staff relocation and job cuts
The relocation of staff at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from their London headquarters to Wales needs to be reviewed "as a matter of urgency".
MPs claim the efficiency measures that will see more than 800 civil servants moved to Newport was putting the government's data agency under "intense pressure".
The warning comes in a report from the Treasury select committee into efficiency targets set for the chancellor's various departments.
In the report MPs write that the ONS relocation plan "could damage services", describing the executive agency as an "organisation unable to perform its tasks to the necessary standard because of structural weaknesses, unless action is taken to alleviate some of the pressures on the ONS".
"The staff relocation programme to Newport has been inadequately planned and poses risks to the quality of statistics provided by the organisation, which include statistics used by the Bank of England in making some of the country's key economic decisions," the report adds.
The committee is also critical of the enforced headcount reductions in place at HM Revenue and Customs, stating that it is "unconvinced" by the government's insistence that "everything was progressing well".
But responding to the report, a Treasury spokesman said that "each of the chancellor's departments is on track to deliver the efficiency targets by March 2008".
"We have developed comprehensive measurement and reporting guidance. Departments are using this to ensure they are following efficiency measurement principles, and to assess their gains and indicate where further work is needed," he added.
But the committee chairman Michael Fallon hit back: "These two departments failed to convince us that their claims – both on the savings made and the quality of their services – are founded on sufficiently robust grounds.
"The key to an efficiency programme that actually achieves something is being able to prove both these aspects through a robust and externally validated reporting process.
"It is ironic, and a source of concern, that the ONS can't produce statistics on its own performance. Both the ONS and HMRC need to start listening to their users and working with them to alleviate the problems – real and perceived – arising from the efficiency programme."
Commenting on the report, the Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said that the government had to "pay heed" to the committee's findings.
"We urge the government and civil service management to step back from further cuts and join with trade unions and service users in assessing the full impact that the efficiency programme is having on services," he added.