HC Deb 19 April 2000 vol 348 cc571-2W
Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what is his estimate of the cost of redundancy payments for staff of the Further Education Funding Council and individual TECs following the setting up of the national and local learning and skills councils; and if he will make a statement; [119683]

(2) how many staff will be made redundant from the Further Education Funding Council and individual TECs as a result of setting up national and local learning and skills councils. [119684]

Mr. Wicks

As the Explanatory Notes to the Learning and Skills Bill explain, we estimate that the new arrangements will lead to a reduction of between 15–20 per cent. in the total number of staff employed to administer post-16 education and training.

However, the transition to the new arrangements is taking place over a relatively long period. During this period there will be routine turnover of staff within the organisations affected as well as the opportunity to work with those organisations to manage staff numbers in such a way as to reduce the need for redundancies.

We are currently going through a detailed exercise with TECs and other organisations affected which will provide a clearer picture of numbers by the end of June. if

Cabinet Office, Agencies and NDPB websites
Name Set-up costs Operation costs (annual) Content of site Estimated expenditure over the next 3 years Average number of hits per month
Cabinet Office (www.cabinet-office.gov.uk) Not separately identifiable £10,000 per annum for commercial webhosting service Cabinet and its committees, ministerial responsibilities, pan Government programmes, guidance, codes and best practice There is no planned additional expenditure 72,300
NDPBs—The Cabinet Office has no Executive NDPBs and details for its NDPBs are therefore included in the Cabinet Office's total figures above
Central IT Unit and Information Age Government Champions (www.citu.gov.uk) (www.iagchampions.gov.uk) CITU—£30,000 IAGC—£5,000 £20,000 to CCTA for CITU site in 1999–2000 The CITU site informs all audiences about the development of government strategy for the use of IT £25,000 p.a. estimated Not monitored
Her Majesty's Stationery Office (www.hmso.gov.uk) Not available £47,800 in total based on last year's calculations £28,800 for setting up of inforoute Information about HMSO, the administration of Crown Copyright and access to the full text of new legislation. Inforoute is the gateway to the new Government Information Asset Register Approx £24,500 per year 1.8 million
E-Envoy (www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/e-envoy) £5,437.50 £5,757.75 per annum The e-Envoy website has been set up to provide information on the work of the Office of the e-Envoy. This includes strategy, monthly-updated progress reports, information on Alex Allan and the team, links and hosts the e-Forum discussion group. £50,000 per year 460

redundancies are necessary, we are committed to working with the organisations involved to ensure that these are handled in an open, fair and sensitive way.