Workplace 2010

Finance and personnel – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 3:30 am on 18 February 2008.

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Photo of Thomas Buchanan Thomas Buchanan DUP 3:30, 18 February 2008

4. asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to provide an update on the Workplace 2010 project.            (AQO 1977/08)

Photo of Stephen Farry Stephen Farry Alliance

10. asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to provide an update on Workplace 2010.      (AQO 2007/08)

Photo of Peter Robinson Peter Robinson DUP

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will take questions 4 and 10 together.

I can confirm that the two bidders who are still in the competition have been invited to submit their best and final offers for the Workplace 2010 contract. When those bids are received, they will be subject to a three-month evaluation, after which the Department will wish to appoint a preferred bidder in the early autumn, with a view to finalising the contract early in 2009. I have, however, given assurances that we will engage fully with the Finance Committee and with the Executive before moving to what are, effectively, the final stages of the procurement.

Photo of Thomas Buchanan Thomas Buchanan DUP

I thank the Minister for the clarification. Will he indicate what progress has been made with the associated review of the location of public-sector jobs?

Photo of Peter Robinson Peter Robinson DUP

I indicated to the House that I wanted to conduct the review of public-sector jobs and their dispersal in parallel with the Workplace 2010 bidding process. As Members will be aware, the team chaired by Professor Sir George Bain was established just before Christmas 2007. I met him towards the end of last year and made it clear that I was not a Minister who was going to interfere and seek to get a particular result from the group considering the matter. It is an independent review, so I am not privy to the details of the project and how it is advancing.

I can tell the Member that, to date, Sir George has given evidence to the Committee for Finance and Personnel and hosted an informal media briefing. The group is currently gathering its own evidence, and I understand that it has set itself the aim:

“to recommend the distribution of public sector jobs that best enhances the sustainable economic and social development of Northern Ireland.”

The group is due to report in summer 2008, which will allow us time to consider its findings on job location in the context of Workplace 2010.

Photo of Stephen Farry Stephen Farry Alliance

At the outset, I welcome the Minister’s decision to allow the Workplace 2010 contract to proceed on the basis that Rathgael House in Bangor will remain, with the Department of Education located there.

Will the Minister clarify whether that decision has been endorsed by the entire Executive, including the Minister of Education and Ministers whose Departments are located in similar buildings elsewhere? While respecting the contract process, can he give some indication of the timescale in which buildings such as Rathgael House will be replaced? I am conscious that people are keen that new buildings be put in place across the Civil Service estate to replace those with existing problems.

Photo of Peter Robinson Peter Robinson DUP

I am fully aware that a number of civil servants operate in conditions that are totally unsuitable. Part of the rationale behind Workplace 2010 is to ensure that modern accommodation is available to facilitate improvements and reform in the Civil Service by having better working conditions.

The intention is that the Department of Education will remain at Rathgael House. That will probably require a modest extension to the newest part of the building. It is also intended that the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) staff will return to the Stormont estate. The Executive have agreed that we will examine the detail before anything is signed, rather than just agreeing the broad principles of Workplace 2010. Not only will everything be subject to the support and approval of the Executive, but we have undertaken to consult the Committee for Finance and Personnel, of which Dr Farry is a member.

Photo of Jennifer McCann Jennifer McCann Sinn Féin

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. The Minister touched on the issue of the relocation of Civil Service jobs. Can he detail any steps that he is prepared to take to ensure that any contracts concerning Workplace 2010 will not put any barriers in the way of the future relocation of Civil Service jobs?

Photo of Peter Robinson Peter Robinson DUP

The Member is right to raise the issue, and I also raised it with my officials. There would have been little point in taking those two processes in parallel if we had already taken decisions that would not have allowed the flexibility to act on the conclusions that will be agreed as a result of Sir George’s review. My officials have assured me that there is sufficient flexibility in the contract to deal with any of the issues that arise out of the review process. If that were not so, I suspect that it would not be signed off by the Executive.

Photo of Patsy McGlone Patsy McGlone Social Democratic and Labour Party

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. As a result of Workplace 2010 and other modernisation processes, including the review that is being undertaken by Sir George Bain, and bearing in mind the desire to decentralise administration, can the Minister give any indication of how many Civil Service jobs are anticipated to be decentralised out of greater Belfast by 2010-11?

Photo of Peter Robinson Peter Robinson DUP

It would be entirely wrong to set up a review with a respected individual in the chair and a panel to consider those matters, and then to give him a remit that allows him to consider all the factors that are at play but to have a fixed view on what the outcome would be.

The group will consider more than Civil Service jobs. Sometimes, questions on this subject seem not to distinguish between Civil Service jobs and the wider public sector. The wider public sector must be considered, although the panel will undoubtedly consider the categorisation of Civil Service jobs. We must take into account — and I suspect that the panel will — that Belfast is our capital city. There will be a requirement for the headquarters of some organisations to be in Belfast. It is not a case of spreading everything evenly across the Province; it does not work that way. We must recognise that the bulk of the population is in the greater Belfast area, and that, for administrative reasons, it is appropriate for the headquarters to be there.