Supporting individual Members and their
staff
The Serjeant at Arms' room booking service takes
bookings for all meetings of Committees and All Party Groups,
as well as Members' private meetings and meetings organised by
House staff on official business.
98. The Serjeant at Arms Department provides many
support services, including accommodation, IT and mail, which
are essential to the work of Members. Specialist services are
also provided by the Department of Finance and Administration
and the Library (see paragraph 44).
Offices and related services
99. The parliamentary estate comprises
ten buildings centred on the Palace of Westminster. The Serjeant
at Arms has responsibility for accommodating almost 4,000 people
on the estate including Members and their staff. Services provided
by the Serjeant at Arms department include the provision of offices,
furnishings, cleaning and all the other facilities expected in
a modern Parliament
Car and cycle parking
100. The House of Commons underground
car park has spaces for 496 vehicles. Usage has diminished somewhat
in recent years, following the introduction of congestion charging.
Implementation of the recommendations of the 2004 security review
will prompt further enhancements to access control and vehicle
searching. The needs of cyclists continue to have priority and
a redesign of cycle racks is planned, to maximise parking spaces.
Mail services
101. Mail services to Parliament are currently
provided by Royal Mail. Following a review by both Houses, an
agreed specification for a parliamentary mail services contract
was published and a procurement exercise commenced. It is expected
that a contract will be let in Summer 2005.
102. Improvements to mail security are well advanced
with a new off-site screening facility coming on stream in July
2005. This facility will capture the benefits of the latest technologies
in order to detect a range of harmful substances.
Committee and meeting room bookings
103. The Serjeant at Arms' room booking service takes
bookings for all meetings of committees and all-party groups,
as well as Members' private meetings and meetings organised by
House staff on official business. There are 22 Committee Rooms,
four multi-function rooms and 23 smaller meeting rooms across
the parliamentary estate. Between them, the rooms can provide
live television broadcasts, simultaneous translation, conference,
reception and video conferencing facilities. An average of 2,000
bookings was taken each month during the year.
Members' computing and IT support
104. Computer equipment for Members' offices
is funded from the Members Estimate, but the work involved in
identifying and supplying standard equipment and in connecting
it to the Parliamentary Network falls to the Parliamentary Communications
Directorate (PCD) under a service level agreement. PCD is managed
by the Serjeant at Arms Department and provides services to both
Houses. PCD supports a network of approximately 6,000 users in
both Houses, many of whom are based outside Westminster.
Key initiatives
105. PCD's work for Members has recently centred
on developing proposals to implement those recommendations of
the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) relating to IT equipment
(see paragraphs 35 and 112). These included increasing the amount
of equipment available to Members to better reflect the numbers
of staff that they currently employ, and seeking to provide users
in remote locations such as constituency offices with a comparable
level of service to that provided in Westminster. A procurement
exercise for the provision of computers and other IT equipment,
their supply, installation and ongoing warranty support has recently
been concluded. This contract will include the replacement of
all the existing centrally provided equipment.
106. Since central provision of equipment was introduced
in 2001, approximately 8,000 items of computer equipment have
been supplied to all parts of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland. In addition, over 380 Members now subscribe to the Parliamentary
Virtual Private Network service, which offers high quality connections
to the Parliamentary Network from locations away from Westminster.
Customer services
107. PCD has run a number of innovative customer
services initiatives during the year, including an event based
on a national customer service week where Members, their staff
and staff of the House were encouraged to attend an exhibition
of PCD services and invited to go behind the scenes to see how
their calls and queries are handled. The event was well attended
and useful feedback was received. In addition PCD set up a drop
in centre within the eLibrary which hosted 52 events, focussing
on a range of IT issues known to be of concern or interest to
Members and their staff. These sessions helped to facilitate the
introduction of a joint training scheme with the Library, which
ensured that a full day's training could be offered to Members'
staff in order to assist constituency-based staff to attend. Over
880 Members, Members' staff, and staff of the House were trained
in the use of the Parliamentary Network during the course of the
year.
Spam
108. A new outsourced service to intercept viruses
and unwanted emails before delivery to users was introduced last
summer and has proved to be extremely successful. Since the service
was introduced in July 2004, 9 million emails identified as unwanted
and 1.3 million items containing viruses were blocked out of a
total of 19.4 million emails sent to Parliament.
Network Performance
109. Network performance in 2004/05 was again excellent
as shown in the chart below.[20]
Members' salaries, allowances and pensions
110. Members' salaries, allowances and pensions are paid from
the Members Estimate and administered by the Department of Finance
and Administration (DFA). The Estimate has separate governance
arrangements from the House's administrative expenditure, and
is reported on separately. The annual accounts for 2004/05, which
will contain further information, will be published in the second
half of 2005. Members are entitled to a range of parliamentary
allowances including a staffing allowance, an incidental expenses
provision and an allowance for overnight stays away from their
main home. They are also provided with centrally-purchased computer
equipment on loan (see above).
111. The Members Estimate Committee (MEC) oversees
the policy relating to Members' allowances and is advised by the
Advisory Panel on Members' Allowances. Both bodies meet regularly.
This year they have discussed items to do with the Senior Salaries
Review Body report on Parliamentary pay and allowances (see paragraphs
35 and 105), guidance for Members leaving the House and a revision
of the "Green Book" which sets out Members' entitlements
and the rules associated with them.
112. In November 2004 the House debated recommendations
from the SSRB on Members' pay, allowances and pensions. Most recommendations
were accepted, mainly taking effect from April 2005 or from the
beginning of the current Parliament. The MEC subsequently approved
detailed changes to the Green Book and other guidance notes available
to Members on the rules and operation of the allowances system.
The MEC decided not to carry forward changes to the incidental
expenses provision as recommended by the SSRB after this was referred
to it for consideration by the House in the November debate.
Members' travel
113. During 2004/05 DFA ran a pilot scheme for the
introduction of a corporate credit card to enable Members to pay
for their business travel in place of using the paper travel warrant
system. Each of the 25 Members involved with the pilot elected
to retain the card at its conclusion. Some minor changes to enhance
the product, which were suggested by the pilot group, will be
adopted. The MEC has agreed that the card's use should be extended
to all Members over the course of the coming year.
114. During 2004 a competitive tender was undertaken
to re-let the contract for the Travel Office, an in-house travel
agency, following consultation with the Administration Committee
and the Travel Office Consumers' Panel. The contract was awarded
to Carlson Wagonlit Travel, who took over from American Express
in September 2004
Freedom of Information
115. The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act came into
force in January 2005 (see paragraphs 130-134). The MEC had previously
decided to act in advance of this date to put information about
individual Members' use of allowances in the public domain. A
publication scheme was agreed in the summer and DFA organised
relevant information for each Member, covering each of the previous
three financial years, for publication on 21 October 2004. It
constitutes a considerable extension in openness and transparency
about allowances paid to Members. It is intended that, from now
on, the publication scheme will be updated each autumn with information
for the most recent financial year.
Members' staff
116. The number of paid Members' staff increased
by six per cent to 2,584 at the year end. As the chart overleaf
illustrates, the increase since 2000/01 exceeds 40 per cent. Not
all Members' staff work on the parliamentary estate, but the continuing
increase in the number of Members' staff (unpaid, as well as paid)
puts pressure on a range of services, particularly accommodation
and catering in Westminster, unless more choose to work principally
in the constituency (see paragraph 35).
Medical services for Members
117. The acute GP service, introduced in December 2003, has
proven to be very helpful for Members of both Houses who experience
health problems and have difficulty accessing their own GP while
working at Parliament. Additionally, all Members are invited for
health screening every three years. An open door policy has helped
to boost use of the various services offered by the Practice Nurses
in the Lower Waiting Hall, including minor treatments and health
and lifestyle advice. The Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare
Service continues to focus on raising health awareness through
proactive promotions, such as Smoking Cessation, Sunsmart/Molewatch
and Healthy Living (see paragraphs 210-216 for other aspects of
medical services).
20 Figures are based on total working hours during
the year. Some instances of degraded service are included in these
unavailability figures Back
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