Examination of Witnesses (Questions 57
- 59)
WEDNESDAY 8 MAY 2002
MR MICHAEL
CUMMINS AND
MR ANDREW
WALKER
Chairman
57. Mr Cummins, Mr Walker, welcome. As I have
just thanked the preceding party that have been to give evidence,
we do thank you very much for coming and giving your valuable
time because we know you are both extremely busy. As you know,
the purpose of this inquiry is to seek to improve our refreshment
facilities. We recognise there are particular problems and they
exist in certain parts of the Parliamentary Estate rather than
in all. We have obviously identified cafeterias as being particularly
problematic in terms of the numbers of people who want to use
those facilities. We obviously want to invite you to help us,
if you would, to make the proposals that will bring about the
changes that we seek on behalf of your staff and the Members of
the House and everyone concerned. Is there anything you would
like to say, Mr Cummins, Mr Walker, just in a few sentences, to
begin this part of the inquiry?
(Mr Walker) Mr Chairman, on behalf of
the Board of Management, could we say, first of all, we very much
welcome the inquiry and are delighted to be able to give evidence
to you. I think it is time it was done and we particularly welcome
the fact that you are looking at an assessment of the current
demands to find out what demand there is for certain services.
We hope, of course, that this will include a full breakdown of
users, not just Members and their staff or House of Commons staff
but peers, their staff, House of Lords' staff, and contractors
and so on, so that we have all got a better basis of information
on which to make some of the judgments we have to make as well
as the recommendations that the Committee has to make. Could I
just say something about the Board of Management's role in this?
Under delegations from the House of Commons Commission, which
is the employer of all the staff in the House of Commons service
and, also, the Clerk of the House, who is the contractor for all
of the contractors who are on site here, that the Board has to
balance the needs and desires of our staff, the needs and desires
of Members and their staff, the business requirements with regard
to short-term and long-term contractors and everyone else who
is on site here. The Board therefore has a management and a balancing
role to do, it is not simply a question of representing those
with whom we are most immediately concerned, which is Members
and their staff and, of course, our own staff. I think that is
all we wanted to say to begin with, and perhaps you will ask us
whatever you would like to know, as you wish.
58. Obviously, as the Board of Management, we
are aware that you play a very distinct and important role within
the structure of the House of Commons. Mr Cummins, would you like
to make any initial comment following Mr Walker, before Members
pose any questions to you?
(Mr Cummins) Thank you, Chairman. All I would like
to add, really, is that the Board are very conscious of the need
for adequate and proper Refreshment Department facilities, obviously,
for, as Andrew said, all those who work in and, indeed, visit
the House. For example, we welcome the introduction of the Jubilee
Cafeteria with regard to looking after our visitors. That is a
very welcome step and we look forward to seeing how that progresses
in the future. Apart from that, the Board are very conscious that
there is a redistribution, for example, of accommodation in progress
at the moment, and I would like to say a few words later, maybe,
about how that redistribution of accommodation will affect the
possible loading of Refreshment Department facilities in and around
the Palace. The Board has also recognised that there may be some
areas of the Palace, for example, which are under-used. Also,
it might be appropriate at the same time to draw comparisons with
the facilities in the House of Lords, which also, we feel, at
some times of the year—certainly during recesses—bear
on our own House of Commons capacity to feed people at busy times.
Chairman: Thank you very much.
Mrs Dean
59. Following on from that, could you tell us
what you feel the effect will be of Members and staff moving to
the northern end of the estate?
(Mr Cummins) Yes, indeed. Mr Chairman, in essence,
over the next six or eight months, and certainly by the spring
of next year, there will be an exodus of Members from, for example,
7 Millbank and other parts of the Palace into the area north of
Bridge Street. In October we plan to fill up the top floor—the
fifth floor—of Norman Shaw North, where at present sleeping
accommodation is taking up office space. We are putting about
15 Members and 15 staff, in total about 30 people, into the top
floor of Norman Shaw North in October. Thereafter, Norman Shaw
South, as I am sure the Committee is aware, has now been allocated
to the use of Members and their staff in the future. That building
will be finished in January or early February next year, and there
will be a significant move of staff into that building by, certainly,
the early spring of 2003. The sort of figures we are looking at
is that overall in Norman Shaw North and Norman Shaw South, topping
those buildings up, we are looking at a total of some 79 Members
and 101 staff—ie, about 180 more mouths to feed, if I can
put it that way—appearing in the Norman Shaw South and Norman
Shaw North area. That will, I think, have an impact on those outlets
such as, certainly, Portcullis House and, maybe, 1 Parliament
Street, the Bellamy's area, for looking after those Members and
staff from next year.
|
