Relocation Expenses (Hansard, 18 March 2002)

§ The Solicitor-General

[holding answer 11 March 2002]: My own Department, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers, is a small Department situated in central London and its staff are seconded to it from a number of parent Departments. The issue of relocating LSLO staff does not, therefore, arise.

In the Departments for which the Attorney-General is responsible, details are as follows:

Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service provides financial assistance to staff who are permanently transferred to a new location in the interests of the Department and, as a consequence, need to move home. The general principle employed in this situation is that staff will be reimbursed for all reasonable expenses actually and necessarily incurred as a result of the relocation. Details of the financial assistance available to CPS staff are contained in the Department's Travel and Subsistence Code.

Treasury Solicitor's Department

All the Treasury Solicitor's Department staff are located in London apart from a small group of eight staff who are co-located with their clients, the Ministry of Defence in Bristol. This small section was relocated from London to Bristol in 1998 and they were given the same relocation terms as applied to MOD staff.

The Treasury Solicitor's Department policy is that, where moves are voluntary, relocation expenses are not paid. As nearly all Treasury Solicitor's Department staff are based in London, the Department does not have a specific relocation policy. The circumstances where the Department might pay relocation expenses would be where staff who were co-located with their clients were being compulsorily moved. In such cases the Treasury Solicitor's Department would ensure that its staff received the same benefits as the clients.

Serious Fraud Office

Almost all of the Serious Fraud Office's permanent staff are based in central London. The very few that are not based in London are regionally based investigators working either from home or in local police stations.

Therefore, the Serious Fraud Office does not offer relocation expenses to its existing staff

Nor does the Serious Fraud Office offer relocation expenses to persons transferring to the Serious Fraud Office from other Government Departments, or to newly recruited staff who need to relocate in order to take up a post with the Serious Fraud Office.