§ Mr. Cookasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his estimate of the number of redundancies which will arise from the transfer of the Scottish plant breeding station to Dundee; and in which grades he expects these to occur.
§ Mr. YoungerI understand that a merger should enable the combined work load to be supported by fewer staff, but a precise estimate of possible redundancies cannot be made until other factors, including the content of the research programmes, have been reviewed.
§ Mr. Cookasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many members of staff
Costs £'000 £'000 a. Cost of developing SHRI to accommodate SPBS … … 1,700 b. Cost of transferring equipment … … 40 1,740 Savings c. Sale of the Murrays Farm less value of Gourdie Farm … … 226 d. Disposal of SPBS headquarters (including glasshouse) at Pentlandfield … … 758 984 Net Cost 856 The estimates at (a) and (b) are approximate estimates by the Directors of SHRI and SPBS respectively. There would be costs associated with the transfer of staff which cannot be quantified at this stage.
The estimate at (c) is based on current land values. The estimate at (d) was provided by the district valuer. It is based on the assumption of transfer of all the premises to a comparable organisation. Additional savings which cannot be quantified at this stage would include such recurrent savings as reduction in travelling costs between headquarters and farms and economies deriving from combining certain support services.
170W
Year No. of children in care (or under supervision, where appropriate) Rate per 1,000 population under age 18 1966 … … 10,654 6.8 1967 … … 10,640 6.7 1968 … … 10,642 6.7 1977* … … 16,872 11.3 1978* … … 17,107 11.7 1979* … … Not yet available *Figures for 1977 and 1978 include children subject to supervision requirements made by children's hearings set up in 1971 under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968: they are not therefore directly comparable with figures given above for the earlier years at the Scottish plant breeding station have indicated their willingness to transfer to Dundee; and what percentage this represents of the total staff.
§ Mr. YoungerMy understanding is that most of the staff of the Scottish Plant Breeding Station would prefer that the station continue to be located at Pentlandfield.
§ Mr. Cookasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his estimate of the total cost and total savings of transferring the Scottish plant breeding station to Dundee; and if he will make a statement on how such costs and savings have been calculated.
§ Mr. YoungerThe following costs are the estimates:
The sum of the costs as estimated by the directors of developing the two institutes independently is£4,000,000 from which would fall to be deducted the sale price of Gourdie Farm (£376,000), leaving a net balance of cost of£3,624,000.