§ Sir Walter Cleggasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he and his right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport intend to take with regard to the recent Rayner study team review of the joint regional offices of the Departments of the Environment and Transport.
§ Mr. HeseltineMy right hon. Friend the Minister of Transport and I have taken full account of the many representations received from right hon. and hon. Members, from local authorities and from other interested bodies and individuals, including the staff. We have now reached decisions on the major strategic proposals contained in the study report. Further study is continuing of the other points it raises.
We accept the report's proposal to transfer Cumbria from the Northern to the North-West regional office, but we see no need, for the present, to change the boundaries of the standard regions or the resulting statistical series.
The report recommended the merger of the remainder of the Northern region with the Yorkshire and Humberside region. We have decided to retain their separate identities as full regions, but both will have the same regional director who, as at present, will be at under-secretary level.
We do not propose to change the boundaries of the Eastern or South-Eastern regions, nor of the East Midlands region, as was proposed in the report. However, the East and West Midlands regions will, in future, have the same regional director, again at under-secretary level, while they also will retain their separate identities as full regions.
All regional directors will assume management responsibility for road construction unit headquarters work in their regions by October 1981, with adjustments made where existing RCU boundaries would not otherwise coincide closely enough with regional office boundaries.
We are considering further the timing of all these changes and future staffing levels, in consultation with representatives of the staff.
We agree that the closest co-operation is desirable at regional level between our offices and those of the Departments of Industry and Employment. We will 222W therefore be working towards co-location of offices as a long-term objective. Meanwhile we are maximising the co-operation of officials dealing with local policies.
In coming to these decisions my right hon. Friend and I have been most grateful for the work done by Sir Derek Rayner and his study officers in drawing up their report, and to all who sent us comments on it, including the trade union side of the departmental Whitley Council.
Copies of the report prepared by the scrutiny officers working in consultation with Sir Derek Rayner—"Review of the joint DOE/DTp Regional Offices"—are being placed in the Library of the House.