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Report by the Board of Management
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| 1. |
Membership and objectives of the Board |
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The Board of Management comprises: |
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W R McKay CB |
Clerk of the House |
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M J A Cummins |
Serjeant at Arms |
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Miss P J Baines |
Librarian |
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A J Walker |
Director of Finance and Administration |
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I D Church |
Editor, Hansard |
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Mrs S J Harrison |
Director of Catering |
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Brian Wilson CBE is the Board's Secretary. |
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During the year, two Board members retired: Sir Peter
Jennings CVO (Serjeant at Arms) and Miss Jennifer Tanfield (Librarian).
Much credit goes to Sir Peter and Miss Tanfield for their indefatigable
service to the House and to their respective departments. |
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Over the year, the Board of Management has concentrated on five
key areas:
- High quality services for the chambers and committees,
for Members, and for the public. The Serjeant at Arms Department's
adoption of a "best possible service" ethic is an example of
this.
- Modernising management. This includes much better
and co-ordinated business planning, and the implementation of
the report by Mr Michael Braithwaite and his team (see below).
- Exploiting technology, where good progress has been
made on development of the Parliamentary website, convergence
of all IT systems across Parliament and on the new electronic
point of sale system in the Refreshment Department. Technological
developments will open up further opportunities which are currently
being explored.
- Managing resources. This area is developing rapidly,
with devolution of decision-taking on staff resources under
the new manpower planning system, and the introduction of resource
accounting which will give managers at all levels a truer picture
of the cost of providing services and the use of capital resources.
- Providing good value. The Board has worked hard through
improved planning, co-ordination and control to offer increasing
value for money in the services provided.
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The milestones for 1999-2000 give further examples of developments
in these broad areas.
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| 2. |
Milestones for 1999-2000 |
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2.1 |
General
The year was busy and eventful. The business of the House has
been running at historically high levels throughout the year,
and the House administration has had to anticipate and meet a
wide range of needs and challenges. The Board of Management has
responded successfully to these requirements, within the resources
provided by Parliament.
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2.2 |
Westminster Hall sittings
An important new development during the year has been the parallel
chamber sitting in Westminster Hall. The House agreed to this
experiment in May 1999, and sittings began in November. The Parliamentary
Works Directorate carried out the necessary refurbishment and
reorganisation work in the Grand Committee Room during the Summer
recess. The work was carried out successfully under a "develop
and construct" arrangement (a novel approach for the House) to
a very high standard and in a short space of time. Once sittings
began, there was increased work for various departments of the
House, covering procedural advice and support, Hansard reporting,
security and broadcasting. As a short-term measure, most of the
additional costs of this experiment have been absorbed by departments
through re-prioritisation of work and significant extra effort
by many staff. The administration of the Westminster Hall sittings
has been a significant challenge, which has been met by the dedication
and flexibility of staff from across the House.
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2.3 |
Braithwaite Report
In June 1999, a team led by Mr Michael Braithwaite, a former
partner in Deloitte Touche, produced a report1
for the House of Commons Commission on the management and services
of the House. The House of Commons Commission has accepted a number
of recommendations in the report, and has appointed Mr Robert
Rogers, Principal Clerk of Select Committees, to act as implementation
manager. He will take forward its decisions as they are taken
in consultation with the Board of Management. The Commission will
progressively over the coming months address the balance of the
recommendations in the report. A key theme is to reinforce the
Board of Management's policy of moving step by step towards a
more corporate (and consequently less federal) approach to management
issues, particularly those which have an impact on more than one
department. The Board will continue to provide a focus for this
more corporate style, and welcomes the overall thrust of the report.
Progress has already been made on implementing a number of recommendations,
including setting up a small office to support the Clerk of the
House in his corporate management responsibilities, setting up
a new audit committee, and launching a review of the Serjeant
at Arms Department.
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2.4 |
Building and refurbishment
The year has been a busy one for the Parliamentary Works Directorate
(PWD). Apart from the work on the Grand Committee Room mentioned
above, two projects stand out.
First, Portcullis House on Bridge Street opposite the Palace
of Westminster is expected to be completed ahead of time and under
budget. This innovative and technically challenging construction
has been designed by Sir Michael Hopkins. The building itself
will be highly energy-efficient, drawing cold water from a deep
bore hole for cooling the building and even flushing the lavatories.
The project is on course for completion during 2000-2001, with
occupation of offices beginning in September.
Secondly, as mentioned in the main report, PWD completed phase
F of the kitchens modernisation programme. This final phase was
the biggest single element in the whole programme, and involved
the complete redesign, restructuring and rebuilding of the main
kitchens area in the Palace of Westminster.
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2.5 |
Information systems (IS) and information technology(IT)
While House departments are responsible for their own IS arrangements,
reflecting the very different services provided by each, the IT
network is provided corporately by the Parliamentary Communications
Directorate (PCD). IS and IT projects with House-wide implications
are planned and co-ordinated through the Information Systems Steering
Group (ISSG) which is chaired by the Director of Finance and Administration.
Its membership consists of representatives from those departments
of the House with responsibilities for providing information systems,
both those which enable Departments to carry out their duties
and which deliver information to Members and others concerned
with the work of Parliament.
During 1999 the Group concentrated on achieving the target it
had set for providing by Autumn 1999 a convergent network based
on the IT Strategy agreed by both Houses of Parliament. It also
formed part of the programme for avoiding any difficulties associated
with the millennium and other significant date changes. Both of
these major programmes were completed successfully. By the end
of the Summer recess the physical network had been upgraded; a
new e-mail system (Microsoft Exchange) introduced for Members,
their staff and departments; and departmental conversion to Microsoft
NT4 operating system completed on both desktop and network servers.
As a result of these precautions and other measures which were
taken, no difficulties were experienced either over the millennium
period or at the leap year date change.
In July 1999 Professor Richard Ormerod of Warwick University
was selected to carry out an IS Strategy review on behalf of both
Houses of Parliament. He reported at the end of 1999 and the two
Houses are now working together to agree the way ahead in the
light of his proposals. Further work is being planned on an information
audit and on strategy development.
More generally proposals have been put forward for the redesign
of the Parliamentary website. Work on developing an IT security
policy and central purchasing of software has continued and the
Group has been co-operating with the Planning and Management Committee
(Finance) in the development and scrutiny of departmental IT plans
as part of the annual planning cycle.
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2.6 |
Printing and publishing
The Annual Report for 1998-99 described in some detail the history
and responsibilities of the Printing and Publishing Management
Group (PPMG), which currently comprises the Clerk of the Journals,
the Editor of the Official Report, the Director of Finance and
Administration, the Director of Library Resources, the Deliverer
of the Vote and the Clerk of Legislation, who chairs the group.
The main weight of the PPMG's work fell in the first half of
the year when it was overseeing the concluding stages of the open
tender process for the contracts for the provision of printing
and electronic publication services for the House after 1 April
2000. The tenders were assessed in the first instance by a professionally
qualified panel drawn from the Vote Office, the Department of
Finance and Administration and The Buying Agency. The findings
of the panel were approved by PPMG on 27 July 1999 and, following
some post-tender clarificatory discussions during the summer recess,
were reported to and approved by the House of Commons Commission
on 1 November. The result was the award of contracts for all the
advertised categories of printing and electronic publishing work
to The Stationery Office Ltd. (TSO), the House's existing contractor.
It is estimated that, on the basis of the current document specifications
and the current workload, the new contracts will yield reductions
of about £2m a year compared with expenditure under the previous
contracts. The new contracts will last for five years.
Two further contracts were concluded with TSO and signed on 2
February 2000: one for the distribution and sale of the House's
publications and one covering certain tasks of publishing administration,
such as the control of the release of documents published under
embargo and the deposit of copies in the recognised copyright
libraries.
The Board and the PPMG are grateful to the staff of the Vote
Office for their dedicated and professional work in carrying through
this complex and demanding tender process so successfully.
Since the award of the new contracts, the PPMG's primary concern
has shifted to the origination of the Vote Bundle. Currently the
Bundle is largely typeset at TSO from manuscript and other paper
copy faxed or conveyed from the House by messenger. The tender
process revealed that very few production printers still retain
a typesetting capability of the necessary scale, and that modernisation
of the origination methods will therefore be essential before
the Vote Bundle is next re-tendered in 2004-2005. A Project Team
has therefore been established within the Vote Office, including
a new Deputy Deliverer (Systems Development), who was appointed
specifically with this purpose in mind. The supervising Project
Board, which reports to PPMG, includes the PPMG chairman and the
Principal Clerk, Table Office. A Business Case for the project
will be submitted early in 2000-2001.
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2.7 |
Personnel Matters
House-wide personnel issues are co-ordinated by the Planning
and Management Committee (PMC). It is chaired by the Director
of Finance and Administration and is attended by Departmental
Establishments Officers from House departments. The Committee
carried out planning and co-ordination of a range of management
issues on behalf of the Board of Management, in particular in
the human resources areas. The PMC forms the official management
side of the General Purposes Sub-Committee that met the Trade
Union Side three times during the year.
It oversaw development and implementation of pay and personnel
policies and practices that are appropriate to the needs of the
Hou
se, while maintaining terms and conditions of service which are
broadly in line with the Home Civil Service.
During the year it has considered:
- HR issues relating to the new staff handbook, childcare arrangements,
recruitment and promotion procedures, House-wide leave arrangements,
payroll giving to charity, Investors in People, lay membership
of Industrial Appeal Tribunals, management of attendance policy,
manpower planning, hospitality and gifts, IT security, millennium
issues (in particular staffing issues), the impact of employment
legislation such as the Data Protection Act, the Disability
Discrimination Act and the Working Time Directive
- Health and safety matters including smoking policy, health
and safety training, insurance for first aiders, alcohol Code
of Practice, defibrillator provision in the House, medical referrals
to the Westminster Gym, and fire prevention training
- Other more general issues such as the arrangements for the
occupation of Portcullis House, the management response to the
House-wide customer survey, and management of Parliamentary
records.
The Committee made recommendations on key issues to the Board of Management
(and, where appropriate, the House of Commons Commission) for decision,
and took responsibility for implementation. |
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| 3. |
The financial picture
After a number of years of growth in expenditure, the House of
Commons Commission has asked the Board of Management to improve
efficiency and bear down on costs wherever possible. Although
the House's administrative expenditure is not cash-limited and
not subject to government direction, the House has adopted a "self-denying
ordinance" whereby it seeks to apply good financial and management
disciplines.
The outturn for 1999-2000 on the House's administrative expenditure
(at £165 million) was encouragingly close to target, excluding
the House's Central Reserve (which was not called upon) and excluding
expenditure on Portcullis House. The Reserve, which was set up
for the first time in 1999-2000, was created to encourage departments
not to over-bid for contingencies or uncertain projects, and has
proved an effective tool for bearing down on expenditure. As for
expenditure on Portcullis House, the outturn was £45 million
compared with a budget for the year of £60 million. This
is partly because the overall cost of the building has been reduced
from earlier forecasts (a welcome development) and partly because
of the timing of some of the bills. Although the construction
programme is on target, some of the 1999-2000 costs will therefore
be carried forward for payment in 2000-2001.
An associated initiative aimed at modernising and controlling
staff provision more effectively has been the introduction of
manpower planning. Much work was carried out during the year,
and the new system was introduced in time to fix manpower budgets
for 2000-2001. While the new system provides greater control of
resources, it also gives individual departments more freedom to
change their staff mix and the balance between staff and other
current costs than was possible under the previous, more rigid,
staff complementing system.
Two related financial developments have been the introduction
of resource accounting and the merger of the two administrative
Votes (the Administration Vote and the Works Services Vote) into
a single Administrative Services Vote. The changes took effect
from 1 April 2000, and this development is reflected in the financial
tables accompanying this annual report.
Many of these developments have been co-ordinated by a new committee,
the Planning and Management Committee (Finance). This was set
up by the Board in 1999, and is chaired by the Director of Finance
Policy. In particular, the committee has taken on responsibility
for co-ordinating and reviewing departmental business plans, which
now form the basis of the financial planning process.
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| 4. |
Outlook for 2000-2001
Key developments in 2000-2001 will be the completion and occupation
of Portcullis House, and the continuing implementation of the
recommendations in the Braithwaite report. Both of these developments
will bring significant benefits to the operation of the House
of Commons, but both have cost implications.
While Portcullis House has relatively low maintenance costs,
and there will be some countervailing savings from giving up accommodation
in 3 Dean's Yard in 2001 and 10 Great George Street, Portcullis
House will provide a number of new facilities which will require
additional staffing (primarily for catering, conferences and security).
These costs will begin to be added in 2000-2001.
As for the implementation of the Braithwaite proposals, much
will depend on decisions yet to be taken on matters of detail,
but the growth of corporate governance spelled out in the report
is likely to require additional central investment in information
and management systems. These should yield long-term benefits
through better co-ordination of effort and better corporate management.
The Board has established an inter-departmental Group on Information
for the Public (GIP) to develop and co-ordinate a strategic approach
to public information issues and improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of the information the House provides to those outside Parliament.
The aim is to improve public understanding and knowledge of the
work of the House. The Group has embarked on an extensive programme
of work to improve the flow of information made available, the
first fruits of which will be seen in 2000-2001. Following the
Group's recommendations, a new Communications Adviser is expected
to be appointed by the Summer of 2000.
The Board of Management has set up a cross-departmental working
group to propose improvements to the induction programme for new
Members. This work has been progressing well, and departments
will be able to put induction arrangements in hand whenever a
General Election is called.
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| 5. |
Reports for individual departments
As in previous years, each of the six House departments has prepared
a report of its own activities. In line with the new approach
to business planning, these reports follow a slightly different
format than previously. The main headings are now:
- Preface
- Main goals and priorities
- Achievements against the plan
- Performance measurement
The financial and manpower accounts and reports are annexed. |
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W R McKay |
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Clerk of the House of Commons and |
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Chairman of the Board of Management |
1HC (1998-1999) 745
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