St. Paul's Angels Nursery (Hansard, 18 May 1995)

§ Mr. Roger Evans

This is a matter for Mr. Ian Magee, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ian Magee to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 17 May 1995: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about the St Paul's Angels Nursery in Brixton. The nursery was opened on 19 June 1991. No timescale was put on the life of the nursery, but to ensure continuing value for money it has been subject to financial review since it opened. Since 1991, with the transfer of the bulk of benefit processing work from Brixton to Belfast there has been a significant reduction of locally based Benefits Agency staff to about 70 on the Brixton site. Despite vigorous efforts by management, take up of places has been low and from September 1995, no District staff plan to use the nursery. A review, conducted in March 1995, shows that the nursery does not satisfy the Treasury value for money criteria and there is a financial shortfall. I should add that local management have attempted to accommodate domestic arrangements by extensive use of flexible working patterns, including allowing staff to work part time. It is not possible to open the nursery to the public as the Benefits Agency may not trade as a business in competition with the private sector. The Agency is consulting once more with other Government Departments and Agencies in the locality to see if they would be willing to pay the necessary subsidies in respect of their staff's use of the facility. Until this has been done no decision about the future of the nursery can be taken. I hope you find this reply helpful.