HC Deb 06 December 1976 vol 922 cc22-3
27. Mr. Hooley

asked the Minister for the Civil Service what progress is being made with the dispersal of Government Departments to South Yorkshire and particularly to Sheffield.

Mr. Charles R. Morris

As my hon. Friend knows, the headquarters of the Manpower Services Commission, together with the headquarters of the Training Services Agency and the Employment Service Agency, is to be located at Sheffield. As a result, some 1,500 posts will be established there. I understand that a small group will be moved in 1977 and that it is expected the main dispersal will begin in 1979.

Mr. Hooley

I welcome the information given in that answer. As the very important Safety in Mines Research Establishment is already located in Sheffield, what are the prospects of moving a section of the Health and Safety Commission to Sheffield?

Mr. Morris

I shall bring that view to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment.

Mr. English

Is there any co-ordination? As the Trent Regional Health Authority, which was supposed to have moved to a location near Nottingham and Derby, was not moved, why is extra consideration being given to Sheffield?

Mr. Morris

I can assure my hon. Friend that it is not a question of preferring one area to another. The decision on the matter to which he has referred is primarily for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services.

Mr. Rooker

As these jobs are winging their way to Yorkshire, Sheffield and Blackpool, may I ask my hon. Friend to drop a few off in the West Midlands —an area which has never gained from the dispersal of civil servants, apart from the prospect held out by the ill-fated wealth tax Bill? If we do not have a wealth tax, we shall have no jobs.

Mr. Morris

My hon. Friend has identified a fact of life about the dispersal of the Civil Service The Government are committed, under the Hardman Committee's recommendations, to dispersing 31,000 Civil Service jobs from London and the South-East to assisted areas. At the time that the decisions were announced, Birmingham was not an assisted area.

Mr. Rost

How many extra civil servants must be employed to organise all this dispersal?

Mr. Morris

I assure the hon. Gentleman that the organisation of the dispersal of the Civil Service is well within the competence and present manpower ceilings of the Civil Service Department.