§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the maximum distance is that employees at Her Majesty's Customs and Excise office in Shrewsbury would be expected to travel if alternative work were found for them.[7142]
§ Mr. BoatengStaff could be moved to another office within reasonable daily travel, which is defined as within 90 minutes' travelling time each way from home, taking into account the personal and domestic circumstances of each member of staff.
§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) when the review into workloads will be completed at Her Majesty's Customs and Excise office in Shrewsbury; [7139]
(2) if he will publish the brief given o the regional director undertaking the review into workloads at Her Majesty's Customs and Excise office in Shrewsbury. [7140]
§ Mr. BoatengThere is no review into workloads at the HM Customs and Excise Shrewsbury office.
§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the proposed reduction in work at HM Customs and Excise office in Shrewsbury. [7137]
§ Mr. BoatengHM Customs and Excise are pursuing a number of initiatives to improve their service to business and achieve efficiency improvements. Reductions in personnel at Shrewsbury are related to the programme to concentrate the work of Debt Management Units from1260W 29 sites into 10. As a result HM Customs and Excise announced that the DMU at their Shrewsbury office will close on 31 March 2002, affecting 32 staff.
However, Customs have no plans to close the Shrewsbury office. Customs are also exploring options with other Government Departments and agencies. Their aim remains to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible.
§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the number of redundancies at Her Majesty's Customs and Excise office in Shrewsbury if replacement work is not found. [7141]
§ Mr. BoatengHM Customs and Excise's policy is to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible. They are not in a position to estimate whether or not there will be any redundancies at Shrewsbury until all the other options have been exhausted.
§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps are being taken to introduce new work at HM Customs and Excise office in Shrewsbury. [7138]
§ Mr. BoatengHM Customs and Excise are undertaking a national review of Regional Business Services work that does not have to be based at a particular location. This may result in that work being pooled or concentrated in particular sites. Shrewsbury will be given equal consideration alongside similar locations as part of that review.