asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the relocation of the Office for National Statistics to Newport can be undertaken without disruption to the production of key economic and social statistics.
My Lords, many of the key outputs of the Office for National Statistics have already been relocated from London without loss of quality. The work is moving to established offices in Newport and Titchfield, which already have a broad base of statistical skills. Risk-management strategies, which are kept under constant review, are in place to relocate the work without adversely affecting quality.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. Is he aware that the National Statistician told the Treasury Select Committee only last week that only 10 to 15 per cent of qualified statistical staff now in London are prepared to go to Newport, and that the Bank of England has warned that the current plans will have a severe impact on a range of statistics? Will the Government now review the pace of the relocation to ensure that no economic statistics are jeopardised?
My Lords, that significant economic statistics are not jeopardised is of paramount importance. I accept the noble Lord’s point that the National Statistician said that only 10 to 15 per cent of staff had relocated, but it was always anticipated that there would be new appointments to these positions. More people are employed in national statistics in Newport than in London, so the move has already progressed significantly.
My Lords, is it not true that civil servants always oppose dispersal policy as a matter of course and that they are invariably wrong?
My Lords, there is certainly a general recognition in the country of the wisdom of seeking to spread jobs and economic prosperity more widely than the overheated south-east, but the moment the Government come along with a strategy for relocating jobs within their own service, there are many critics to be found.
My Lords, the Minister accepted a moment ago that the National Statistician had told the Treasury Select Committee that 10 to 15 per cent of staff “had relocated”. In fact, she told the committee that she expected only 10 to 15 per cent of staff to relocate, which the Financial Times correctly interpreted as meaning that some 700 or 800 staff of the ONS would not relocate and it would have to recruit new staff at Newport. Is the Minister not being unduly complacent about what seems to be developing into quite a serious situation for the ONS?
My Lords, no one has suggested that the relocation of the work would proceed without any difficulty at all. That is why it is being carefully phased. The noble Lord will know that the most significant posts are being held until 2010 to maximise opportunities either for people at a very senior level to move or for their posts to be advertised and replacements found. The priority must certainly be the protection of the quality of the service for which the Office for National Statistics is renowned, while achieving that other objective which the House would recognise as welcome; namely, that some functions of the Treasury—this department is within the Treasury—should be located outside London.
My Lords, did my noble friend the Minister see the article in the Financial Times this morning by Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, in which she gave a pretty comprehensive and robust account of how the move is going? She made the point, among others, that there are now more people in Newport. I found the article pretty convincing. Does the Minister agree with me?
My Lords, it is certainly unlikely that an organ such as the Financial Times would publish an article without it having real substance, particularly given its source and the high repute of the National Statistician. She and her office enjoy a high reputation. Therefore, I commend to all her analysis of the process of relocation, because I, too, found it convincing.
My Lords, if the Minister has such a high opinion of the Financial Times, will he reread rather more carefully the article about two weeks ago that expressed very serious concerns about the relocation, including those from the staff? The Minister mentioned risk-management strategy. Given that the great majority of the experts who run the cost of living statistics are not prepared to go to Newport, what exactly is the strategy to ensure that Britain’s cost of living statistics are not seriously damaged?
My Lords, the noble Lord has identified a very important range of statistics whose quality we need to guarantee. When I emphasise risk assessment, what is in place is a balance between the speed with which relocation can take place and the necessary expertise being available to the office to guarantee the statistics that the noble Lord has identified. The ONS is responsible for a range of other statistics, which other Members of this House would regard as equally significant.
My Lords, I was pleased to hear the Minister praising the coverage of the Financial Times, because last week it also reported that the Statistics Commission, which was worried about the impact of resources, including relocation, on the quality of statistics, had requested budget information from the ONS to evaluate the impact of these changes. The FT reported that that was denied. Why?
My Lords, when I praised the Financial Times, I praised an organ that provides a forum for a very important debate in this area. None of us would doubt that the moving of such a significant office from London is a matter of very great interest among all concerned with the quality of our statistics and must be managed carefully. That is why the Financial Times published an article that identified some of the challenges laid before the office in moving. As we heard from my noble friend earlier, today the Financial Times gave the opportunity to the chief statistician to indicate how she thought that the process was going—and she reported favourably in those terms.
My Lords, some years ago there was a highly successful relocation of the Royal Mint from the Tower of London to Llantrisant in south Wales, which can serve as a model. Has there been a failure to sell the attractions of Newport, with the Usk and Wye valleys and cheaper house prices than London?
My Lords, Newport can advertise its own virtues. In addition to the city itself, which has many advantages not least in terms of its house prices in comparison to those of the south-east, Newport is located in a supremely attractive area at the southern end of the Wye valley. Of course, many people would find that attractive.