§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the estimated number of staff who will be made redundant due to the proposed closures of his Department's regional offices in Basingstoke, Bristol, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Manchester and Nottingham.
§ Mr. RossiAs part of our plan to devolve social security work from headquarters to regions and from regions to local offices, we have decided to reduce the number of regions from 12 to seven. We began the merging of existing regions in August with Wales and South Western, and the process of combining the remaining regions will continue over the next 18 months or so, the implications being worked out in each of the regions affected in consultation with those concerned. It does not necessarily follow that five regional offices will disappear altogether. It has already been announced, for example, that although Cardiff is to be the headquarters of the new Wales and South Western region, the existing office in Bristol will continue to house some staff for some time to come. No other decisions have yet been made, but proposals involving our offices at Basingstoke and Newcastle—but not those at Manchester or Nottingham—have been put to the trade union side of the departmental Whitley council. We estimate that the size of our regional offices will decrease by about a third—some 1,600 to 1,850 staff, but that a significant number of extra staff will be required in local offices to deal with the work which will be devolved to that level. As staff have been advised, our aim is that any rundown flowing from devolution should be achieved through natural wastage and spread over a period of time designed to minimise disturbance to the staff and to take account of the circumstances and wishes of individuals.