10 February 2006
Armed forces minister Adam Ingram has warned Ministry of Defence civil servants to expect 'a significant number' of compulsory redundancies following his decision to close key sites in Wales and the Home Counties.
Following a three-month consultation programme, Ingram announced on February 2 that he intends to close two of the six business units that comprise the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (Dara) by 2007: the fast jet site at St Athan in Glamorgan and an engine maintenance unit at Fleetlands, Hampshire.
'We will help those affected to find alternative employment… and we will use natural labour turnover, redeployment and voluntary redundancy to mitigate the loss. We will seek to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum, but a significant number may be expected.'
As part of a 'logistics modernisation programme,' Ingram will also test the viability of privatising Dara's helicopter repair units at Fleetlands and Almondbank in Scotland, as well as a separate unit at St Athan dealing with VC10 cargo planes.
These three businesses, he said, 'will be taken to the market to test whether sales might deliver improved effectiveness and value for money for our armed forces and a better long-term future for the workforce'.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley is believed to have recommended the potential sales in a recent review of Dara's activities.
But the Public and Commercial Services civil service union said the closure of the two sites in 2007 would have 'wasted over £155m of taxpayers' money'.
More than £80m was spent on new Dara buildings at St Athan just four years ago, while the MoD is tied to a lease costing £5m a year. 'The earliest the lease can be broken is in 15 years time,' the union said. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka also warned that the sales could create a private sector cartel for aircraft repair and maintenance – because very few firms have the resources and expertise to bid for contracts. He claimed that would put vital UK defence services at risk.
Dara's electronic business, also based in Wales, would be retained within the MoD, Ingram said.
Personnel expert joins Cabinet Office
Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell has recruited a leading private sector personnel expert to direct his overhaul of civil service skills.
O'Donnell announced on February 3 that Gill Rider, the former chair of consultancy Accenture UK, will take over as the Cabinet Office's director general of leadership and people strategy later this year.
Public Finance understands that Rider, currently Accenture's global leadership director, could be in the post by May.
Rider will assume a beefed-up version of former Cabinet Office corporate development and HR director general Alice Perkins. She will be responsible for the professional skills for government programme, with a particular focus on developing future civil service leaders and promoting diversity.
Rider, who will report directly to O'Donnell, will also be the senior officer representing human resources professionals across all government departments. Since she joined Accenture in 1979, Rider has regularly advised international governments on ways to overhaul administrative structures.
O'Donnell said her 'extensive… experience of developing leadership throughout her [current] organisation is highly relevant to the current civil service reform programme'.
When he took over as Cabinet secretary last summer, O'Donnell inherited Whitehall's campaign to improve the civil service skills base to make departments more outward-looking and focused on public service delivery.
PAC suggests variable deadlines for tax returns
The Public Accounts Committee has urged different deadlines for various groups to file their tax returns to make the process more efficient.
In a report published this week, Filing of income tax self-assessment returns, the MPs said the Revenue & Customs department made mistakes in processing almost 500,000 returns in 2004/05. People were undercharged for tax by £65m, while others overpaid £30m, and 30,000 taxpayers were given incorrect penalty notices, despite filing their returns on time.
Chair Edward Leigh said taxpayers were increasingly 'going to the wire' in filing their returns, causing a last-minute jam that led to errors. Creating different filing dates for different groups of taxpayers would help spread the load for officials, he said.
'Taxpayers themselves make errors in about a third of tax returns, costing an enormous £2.8bn in lost tax. HMRC needs to provide clear information on how to avoid the most common mistakes. It should improve the training of its call centre staff and the access to specialist advice,' Leigh added.
Revenue & Customs collects £16bn a year from income tax self-assessment, the report shows, and achieved its public service agreement target of 90.6% of 2003/04 tax returns filed on time by the January 31, 2005 deadline.
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