13 July 2007
The government's Health and Safety Executive is set to relocate hundreds of posts from London to Merseyside as part of a Whitehall plan to cut civil service numbers and costs, Public Finance can reveal.
Senior officials met last week to discuss relocating the bulk of the HSE's 270 Southwark-based policy and administration staff to its Private Finance Initiative-built offices in Bootle, north Liverpool. Under the plan, the HSE's London-based inspection team, and a 'residual' policy staff, would remain in the capital.
The HSE is responsible for regulating health and safety risks nationally by, for example, monitoring standards at construction sites, hospitals, schools and offices.
An HSE spokesman confirmed to PF: 'The relocation of non-operational staff is one of a few options under consideration. But a final decision would need to be approved by our parent body, the Health and Safety Commission, and that can't happen until it meets this autumn.'
However, a senior source said that the decision to relocate posts was 'a done deal' because all options under consideration involved moving work to Merseyside. An internal announcement on the issue had 'gone down like a lead balloon' among staff in Southwark, the source added.
The HSE spokesman said that the high cost of rent and labour in the capital had forced senior managers to consider their options at a time when Whitehall organisations have to make £21.5bn in annual efficiency savings from 2008. Ministers have also targeted the relocation of 20,000 civil service posts from the Southeast to regional offices.
Staff numbers at the HSE, which is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, have been cut from 4,282 in 2004 to 3,225 this year. Ministers have been criticised because the cuts have been accompanied by a reduced inspection regime.
The number of accidents at some sites has risen subsequently – including a 14% increase in construction industry deaths – and some critics have been quick to establish a link.
The three main civil service trade unions – the Public and Commercial Services union, Prospect and the FDA – were due to discuss their response at meetings on July 12.
The PCS could back relocations to a relatively deprived area, if it could secure agreements over the redeployment of London-based staff, adequate relocation packages for those who choose to move to Liverpool and assurances over civil service diversity.
PFjul2007
