Dispersal (Glasgow) (Hansard, 26 July 1976)

§ 18. Mr. Teddy Taylor
asked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will make a statement on the progress made in the programme to disperse Civil Service jobs to Glasgow.

§ Mr. Charles R. Morris
As I told the hon. Member on 10th May, the Departments concerned are continuing to make good progress with detailed planning for the moves that have been announced, and which are due to take place for the Ministry of Overseas Development in 1980 and for the Ministry of Defence in 1982 to 1984.

§ Mr. Taylor
In view of the desperate unemployment situation in Scotland, can the Minister give a clear assurance that at his meeting with civil servants tomorrow he will not agree to any delay in the transfer of the Ministry of Defence to Glasgow? In view of the repeated rumours and uncertainty, can he say when a contract will be placed for the construction of the new MOD building and when the jobs will start coming?

§ Mr. Morris
It is expected that construction at East Kilbride will begin by the end of 1977 and at the St. Enoch site by the end of 1979. The MOD department at the St. Enoch site in Glasgow will be one of the largest buildings in Scotland. Bearing in mind that these are major projects which require careful planning and large-scale construction work, all of this must inevitably take some time.

§ Mr. Stan Crowther
Will my hon. Friend accept that there are many parts in the English regions which are desperately in need of this kind of employment and which were completely ignored in the Hardman Report? Will he assure me that next time dispersal is considered it will be carried out on a more realistic and less prejudiced basis so that the smaller centres as distinct from big cities may have a share?

§ Mr. Morris
I cannot accept that the Hardman Committee proceeded on a prejudiced basis. I recognise my hon. Friend's legitimate claim to speak on behalf of South Yorkshire, and that is an area to which we are giving attention at present, but when he asks me to ensure that the regions are borne in mind I can assure him that they are very much borne in mind. Indeed, I am a regional Member myself.

§ Mrs. Bain
Does the Minister deny that the reluctance of civil servants to move to Scotland is partly because many employees would lose the London weighting allowance and the cost of living is high in Scotland? Is he aware that some of us believe that the answer is for Scotland to have its own Civil Service, thereby saving the cost of civil servants travelling up and down from Scotland to London?

§ Mr. Morris
The fragmentation of the Civil Service would not be helpful either to the Chancellor of the Exchequer or to the people of Scotland.