HC Deb 04 April 1995 vol 257 cc1004-5W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list the jobs that have been lost to agencies in his Department in the past two years that have(a) been taken over by contractors and (b) disappeared.

Mr. John M. Taylor

The question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executives of the agencies are best placed to provide answers. I have accordingly asked the chief executives of HM Land Registry, the Public Record Office and the Public Trust Office to reply direct. The Court Service was not an agency in the period covered by the question hut became an executive agency on 3 April 1995.

Letter from Sarah Tyacke to Mr. Paul Flynn, dated 4 April 1995: I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply to your question relating to jobs taken over by contractors or that have disappeared in the last two years in the Public Record Office. 16.5 posts were taken over by contractors in the last two years. No jobs have disappeared.

Letter from John Manthorpe to Mr. Paul Flynn, dated 4 April 1995: I have been asked by the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, to reply to your recent question concerning jobs that have been lost to agencies in the last two years that have (a) been taken over by contractors, and (b) disappeared. I can provide the following information:- Her Majesty's Land Registry, which is a separate government department of the Lord Chancellor, was established as an Executive Agency in July 1990. Because of the slump in property market activity since the boom in the 1980s the Registry has consistently reduced its staff in post since 1989.

  1. (a) 15 posts have been taken over by contractors or been redeployed as a result of the Registry's market testing programme.
  2. (b) the number of staff employed by the Land Registry has reduced by 893 through natural wastage and voluntary early retirement.
I do hope that this answers the points raised with the Parliamentary Secretary but please contact me if I can be of any further assistance.

Letter from S. Hutcheson to Mr. Paul Flynn, dated 3 April 1995: The Parliamentary Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department has asked me to reply to you as part of the Lord Chancellor's Department's response to your Parliamentary question, listed on 30 March 1995, regarding jobs which have either been taken over by contractors or disappeared. The Public Trust Office had a total of 585 staff when it became an Executive Agency on 1 July 1994 and since then has not had any posts taken over by contractors. As a result of the market testing of the Typing Services in the Public Trust Office in 1993. prior to our move to Agency status. there was a reduction of two typing manager and six typing posts.