Property Services Agency (Hansard, 24 July 1991)

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many applications from the two recent schemes for voluntary early retirement or severance within the Property Services Agency have been turned down.

§ Mr. Yeo
The total number of non-industrial staff VER applications that have been turned down to date is 385.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many staff, excluding natural wastage, the Property Services Agency has declared surplus for the financial year 1991–92.

§ Mr. Yeo
In order to achieve its business planning projections, PSA Services currently has a target reduction of 2,500 posts in 1991–92. We expect some 700 of these to be achieved by natural wastage.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many staff the Property Services Agency anticipates transferring to other Government Departments in the financial year 1991–92.
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§ Mr. Yeo
PSA Services hopes to transfer some 800 staff to other Government Departments in the financial year 1991–92.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his policy on supporting the principle of staff within the Property Services Agency being subjected to compulsory redundancies where volunteers exist.

§ Mr. Yeo
The policy of PSA Services is to achieve as many as possible of the necessary staff reductions through voluntary means and to keep compulsory redundancies to the minimum. Some compulsory redundancies will be inevitable however even where volunteers exist; for example if any of the volunteers are key personnel who cannot be released or are in a grade and discipline for which PSA Services has a long-term need.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many private sector agency staff are employed within the Property Services Agency.

§ Mr. Yeo
PSA Services currently employes 304 private sector agency staff.

§ Mr. Soley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) pursuant to his oral answer of 10 July,Official Report, column 950, if it is his intention to give the redundancy pay dowry to which he referred to the purchasers of PSA Services;
(2) pursuant to his answer of 10 July, Official Report, column 949, whether he has any plans to use dowries other than the ones linked to redundancy payments, in cash or in kind, to enable the sale of any part of the PSA.

§ Sir George Young
When the PSA Services businesses are privatised, the new owners will take over assets, particularly in the form of the expertise of staff and the contracts on which they are engaged, and liabilities, particularly in the form of contractual obligations to those staff. If the value of the contingent redundancy liabilities taken on by the purchaser exceeds the value of the assets acquired, the purchaser will require a "dowry". A trust-fund is unlikely to be the most appropriate mechanism for providing such a dowry.

§ Mr. Patrick Thompson
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the future of Property Services Agency Services.

§ Mr. Heseltine
We remain committed to transferring the activities currently carried out by the PSA Services —PSAS—businesses to the private sector. Following consideration of the reports from my Department's advisers, Coopers and Lybrand Deloitte, we have reached the following conclusions on the options for the different PSAS businesses.
PSA International—PSAI—is not saleable as a separate organisation. We will therefore consult its clients, in particular the Ministry of Defence, about how best to phase out their reliance on PSAI and to complete the work currently underway.
Building Management is being reorganised into five regional businesses. We plan to appoint a contractor manager to carry through the restructuring and preparations necessary to make the businesses ready for sale. Providing satisfactory progress is made and the subject to market sentiment, we aim to offer the regional businesses for sale towards the end of next year.
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Again subject to progress and market sentiment, we propose to offer PSA Projects for sale early next year. The necessary financial information is being drawn together to determine the best form of sale or sales.