Memorandum from the Serjeant at Arms on
behalf of the Board of Management
1. ACCOMMODATION
OVERVIEW
Estate Population
1. The House of Commons Estate currently
supports some 4,500 occupants, of whom 646 are Members, approximately
1,230 Members' staff and 1,755 staff of the House. The remaining
916 are "third party" occupants: organisations provided
space on the Estate but not directly funded by the House of Commons
Commission (such as the Press and contractors, eg the Post Office).
2. Although the number of Members has recently
dropped from 659-646 as a result of boundary changes, the population
of their staff and the supporting organisation has grown in response
to the increasing business of Parliament. Between 2000 and 2005
the number of Members' Staff increased by approximately 28%, and
the number of Staff of the House increased by 14%.
Figures 1 and 2
CURRENT POPULATION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
ESTATE AND ESTATE POPULATION GROWTH 2000-2005
3. During this period, the leases of 3 Dean's
Yard and 10 Great George Street were surrendered, but the size
of the Estate increased with the opening of Portcullis House in
August 2000. Portcullis House is predominantly Members' accommodation
and the net effect of the changes was to increase the space available
for Members and their staff by approximately 20%.
Accommodation Usage
4. The House of Commons Estate comprises
approximately 60% of the Palace of Westminster, six owned buildings
within the security perimeter of the North part of the Estate
(Portcullis House, Norman Shaw North and South, 1 Parliament Street,
1 Canon Row and 1 Derby Gate), and two leased buildings (7 Millbank
and 2 The Abbey Garden). This does not include staff residences
and sleeping accommodation.
5. Of the 116,000m2 of internal space on
the Estate, 47% is "unusable" area, that cannot be assigned
to occupant groups. The main unusable elements of the Estate are:
18,600m2 of hallways and lobbies (16%), 12,700m22 of corridors
(11%), 9,400 m2 of plant rooms (8%), and 5,100 m2 of stairs and
lifts (6%). For comparison, this ratio is between the Royal Courts
of Justice (c. 65% unusable) and efficient modern office developments
(c. 15-20% unusable).
6. This leaves 60,300m2 of usable space,
of which 37,500m2 (62%) is office accommodation. The distribution
of the usable space across the main functions of the House is
shown in Figure 3 on the following page.
Figure 3
PROPORTION OF USABLE AREA OCCUPIED BY HOUSE
FUNCTIONS
Members' Support includes Parliamentary Resource
Centres, Speaker's Accommodation, Members' Cloak Room.
Library excludes Library Department staff office
areas.
Dining and Café excludes kitchen, production,
dishwashing and catering storage areas.
Support Services includes kitchens, storage,
photocopy rooms, training, tea points, showers and lockers.
(Source: Archibus 2006)
7. Although the Palace constitutes 52% of
the overall internal area of the Estate, owing to its architecture
it only contains 38% of the usable space. The distribution of
usable space shown above for the whole Estate is similar in the
Palace itself, with the main differences being a greater proportion
of Chamber and Committee Meeting areas (17%) and less staff of
the House offices (13%).
8. The 2003 Accommodation Review identified
a demand-led culture with regard to accommodation on the Commons
Estate. This is partly due to a low awareness of the cost of occupancy.
As yet, no mechanism has been successfully developed for calculating
Estate occupancy costs.
9. By way of illustration, the total cost
of occupancy per person for companies in prime central London
real estate (including utilities, maintenance, services and facilities
management) would typically be in the range of £10,000-15,000
per person per year.
10. Data and policies within this report
are primarily drawn from the HOK Accommodation Review, approved
by the House of Commons Commission in January 2003, copies of
which have been made available to the Administration Committee.
2. MEMBERS
11. Members' accommodation is provided in
five of the nine buildings on the Estate (the Palace of Westminster,
Portcullis House, Norman Shaw North and South and 1 Parliament
Street). Members and their staff occupy 20,600m2 (58%) of the
office accommodation on the Estate. Of this space, Members themselves
occupy 45%, some 9,200m2.
Figure 4
MEMBERS' DESK SPACES
| | |
| | | |
| POW | PH
| NSN | NSS |
1PS | Total |
| | |
| | | |
| Desk spaces | 233 | 208
| 102 | 43 | 59
| 645 |
| Office area (m2) | 3,063 |
3,305 | 1,310 | 693
| 842 | 9,213 |
| Density (m2/p) | 13.1 | 15.9
| 12.8 | 16.1 | 14.3
| 14.3 |
| | |
| | | |
| — Excludes Speaker's accommodation.
| | | |
| | |
| (Source: HOK 2005 Election Tool; PAD 2006)
| | | |
| | |
| |
| | | |
|
12. There is considerable variety in the size and configuration
of Members' accommodation across and within buildings. Members
may occupy a private single office with their staff located elsewhere,
a suited office with their staff in an adjoining room (an arrangement
which predominates in Portcullis House), or an office shared with
their staff.
13. There are more designated Members' offices than there
are Members. The three Accommodation Whips allocate a supply of
721 designated Members' offices totalling 14,800m2, including
126 Official rooms (Whips, Ministers, Shadow Cabinet), between
the Parties. Of these, 318 offices are occupied solely by Members
(including rooms forming part of a suite), 327 by Members sharing
with their staff (including 54 rooms forming part of a suite),
and 76 by staff only. In addition, the Serjeant at Arms provides
a further 5,800m2 to accommodate Members' staff. Figure 4 above
splits out only the space actually occupied by Members. Figure
5 below identifies office sizes for singly occupied Members' offices.
Figure 5
DISTRIBUTION OF MEMBERS' SINGLE OCCUPANCY OFFICE SIZES
(Source: HOK 2005 Election Tool. Sample: 318 offices
solely occupied by Members.)
14. The planning guideline for Members' accommodation
recommended by the 2003 Accommodation Review is 12.5m2. When applying
this to single occupancy offices, the recommended range is 10.5-15.5
m2. Above 15.5 m2, it is recommended that the room becomes multiple
occupancy.
15. For comparison, senior executives in modern corporate
organisations and government offices in London typically occupy
offices of 13.5m2. In a 2005 HOK survey of City Law Firms, partners'
single offices were an average of 13m2, and shared double offices
were 16.5 m2.
Members Accommodation Below Standard
16. 58 Members' rooms are less than 10.5m2, at an average
of 8.8m2 per room. Almost all of these rooms are in the Palace
(in Star Chamber Court and the Upper Committee Corridors); some
Members may judge that the benefit of close proximity to the Chamber
outweighs the inconvenience of the tighter space.
17. Six rooms in the internal part of the Lower Ministers'
floor have no natural light, and 39 rooms in the Upper Committee
Corridors only have small roof-lights, and are not suitable in
their current condition for long periods of occupation. These
rooms are acknowledged by the House Authorities as a problem and
solutions are being considered.
Ministerial Accommodation
18. 70 rooms, totalling 1,300m2, are allocated to Government
Ministers, most of whom are also provided a dedicated office within
their Ministry building, which is typically their primary place
of work. As a result, a number of prime rooms with close proximity
to the Chamber are under-utilised.
19. By observation, it appears that a third of these
rooms in Lower and Upper Ministers' and Star Chamber Court are
used frequently, a third occasionally, and a third rarely.
Opposition Accommodation
20. Designated Shadow Cabinet accommodation is 170m2
in the Shadow Cabinet Block. However, in 2003 the official opposition
chose instead to occupy 380m2 of office space on the second floor
of Norman Shaw South.
21. The Liberal Democrat Leader's accommodation consists
of four rooms totalling 80m2. It may be difficult to accommodate
the new Leader's support team in the available space.
3. MEMBERS' STAFF
22. The number of Members' staff on the Estate is difficult
to capture accurately because of the transient workforce of researchers
and interns, part-time staff and staff shared between Members.
Figure 6
MEMBERS' STAFF DESK SPACES
| | |
| | | |
| POW | PH
| NSN | NSS |
1PS | Total |
| | |
| | | |
| Desk spaces | 288 | 405
| 267 | 145 | 125
| 1,230 |
| Office area (m2) | 2,851 |
3,501 | 2,451 | 1,474
| 1,078 | 11,355 |
| Density (m2/p) | 9.9 | 8.6
| 9.2 | 10.2 | 8.6
| 9.2 |
| | |
| | | |
| | |
| | | |
(Source: HOK Election Tool 2005 and manual desk count
24-02-06)
23. According to a recent desk count, the average number
of staff located on the Estate is 1.9 per Member. Up to 80 Members
choose to locate no staff on the Estate at all. Members' staff
occupy rooms shared with their Members, additional rooms allocated
to Members by the Whips, and designated staff rooms or pooled
staff areas such as the Lower Secretaries' Area below the Chamber.
Figure 7
DISTRIBUTION OF WESTMINSTER STAFF PASSES PER MEMBER
(Source: Pass Office data February 2006. Includes
Conservative resource units)
24. Although Pass Office data indicates that only five
Members have more than five passes, the manual desk count suggested
that 21 Members actually locate five or more staff on the Estate.
25. Members have choice in the location of their staff
between Westminster and their Constituency. The impact on resources,
accommodation and facilities of Members locating their staff on
the Estate was recognised by the SSRB, and the 2003 Accommodation
Review recommended the investigation of incentives to encourage
Members to choose to locate new staff in the Constituency. However,
no solution to this issue has yet been agreed.
26. In addition to staff working directly for Members,
there are nine Parliamentary Labour Party staff and 14 Conservative
staff in resource units located around Cloister Court in the Palace,
and 10 Liberal Democrat researchers in 2 The Abbey Garden.
4. STAFF OF
THE HOUSE
27. Staff of the House are organised in six Departments
and the newly formed PICT Department. Figure 8 shows the total
number of staff and office area occupied. The ostensible square
metres per person calculation (7.5m2) does not accurately reflect
office occupancy density, since about 25% of Staff of the House
are peripatetic or work in public areas, such as Attendants, Doorkeepers,
catering staff, receptionists and engineers. Excluding these non-desk
based staff, the office occupancy density figure rises to 10.5m2
per person.
Figure 8
TOTAL NUMBER OF STAFF OF THE HOUSE
|
| Total Headcount | 1,735 |
| Office area (m2) | 13,140 |
| Density (m2/p) | 7.5 |
|
| |
28. Figure 9 below shows a detailed breakdown of staff
by Department. The occupancy density calculations exclude non
desk-based staff (shown in brackets).
Figure 9
STAFF OF THE HOUSE DESK SPACES
| POW | PH
| NSN | NSS |
1PS | 1CR | 1DG
| 2AG | 7MB |
Total | Density
|
| Clerk's Dept | 83 |
| 1 | | |
| | 9 | 241 |
334 | 13.6 |
| Vote Office | 5(7) | 2
| 17 | | 9 |
| | | 8
| 41 (7) | 8.8 |
| DFA | 2 | |
| | |
| | 4 | 184 |
190 | 10.1 |
| Library | 31 | 1
| 19 | 13 | |
| 177 | |
| 241 | 8.4 |
| Official Report |
56 |
| | |
| | | |
75
|
131 |
10.4
|
| PCD | | |
| 4 | |
| | | 83 |
87 | 8.9 |
| Refreshment Department |
33(182)
|
5(44) | |
|
1(18) | |
| |
9(28) |
48
(272)
|
10.0 |
| Serjeant at Arms |
66(99)
|
13(23) |
8(18) |
4 |
3(10) |
77
| |
1 |
13
|
185
(219) |
9.0
|
Total Headcount |
276
|
21 |
45
|
21 |
13
|
77 |
177
|
14 |
613
|
1,257 |
10.5 |
Non-office headcount |
(357)
|
(67) |
(18) |
|
(28) |
|
| |
(28)
|
(498) | |
Density
(m2/p) |
11.8
|
13.8 |
14.8 |
10.6 |
9.4 |
9.0
|
7.7 |
14.1 |
10.3
|
10.5 | |
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
|
— Departmental numbers reflect YE'05 status with
regard to staff now allocated to PICT.
— Office of the Clerk included in Clerk's Department
figures.
— Variations in Archibus space labelling and inclusion/exclusion
of corridors may affect some density calculations.
(Source: Archibus 2006 and HOK Estate Occupancy Report
2004, updated February 2006)
Location on the Estate
29. HOK's 2004 "Estate Occupancy" study
evaluated the location requirements of Departments of the House
and Third Party Occupants of the Estate against a framework of
weighted criteria. This established the nature of each group's
requirement for regular physical interface with the core functions
of the House, its Committees, Members and their staff, and for
supporting visitor, security and maintenance requirements.
30. The study concluded that 75.5% of these functions
do require physical location on the Estate in order to support
the increasing needs of Members for high quality, responsive services.
The remaining 24.5% are eligible for further analysis, should
the capacity of the existing Estate be exceeded, or if new groups
require location on the Estate. The majority of these functions
are located in outbuildings such as 7 Millbank and 1 Derby Gate.
Such a review would need to consider factors such as operational
change and disruption, critical mass, degree of proximity, cultural
change and a cost/benefit analysis.
Improving Space Utilisation
31. There have been a number of recent initiatives within
Departments to make better use of existing accommodation, improve
business efficiency, reduce space occupied by filing, and adopt
more open, flexible ways of working, eg team spaces. The most
recent example has been the new PICT department which has reviewed
its space requirements, taking into account its business needs
and the opportunities provided by better use of technology. The
result has been a significant reduction in the space occupied
per person.
32. This kind of review could be appropriate in other
areas too. For example:
— Examine the scope for grouping staff together
in accordance with business needs, eg Members' staff or Departments
where current accommodation is highly fragmented (such as the
Library).
— Align space more effectively for groups that have
moved into space originally designed for different occupants (eg
the Committee Office in former Member areas of 7 Millbank).
— Examine the potential of home working and mobile
technologies (including WiFi and improvements to telephony) to
enable increased use of hot desking, and mobile working enabled
by the provision of communal touch down areas across the Estate.
— Review the space occupied by filing and documentation
in the light of proposals to improve electronic document and records
management across the House.
Accommodation below Standard
33. Offices for staff of the House are generally of adequate
quality. However, there are a number of areas on the Estate where
staff accommodation is below standard (eg windowless or poorly
ventilated offices) or not appropriate for its present use. Some
examples are:
— Department of the Official Report accommodation
on the North and South Bridges off the Upper Committee Corridor.
— The Parliamentary Recording Unit and the control
rooms and technical areas used for the televising of Parliament
(operated and maintained by an outside contractor, which employs
around 30 full-time and freelance staff) located in the basement
of 7 Millbank.
— Some areas in 1 Canon Row, and Boiler House Court,
occupied by the Serjeant at Arms' Department.
— The small size of the Lower Table Office affects
the level of service that can be provided to Members.
34. In addition, technical staff and contractors, who
provide essential support services, occupy poor quality basement
accommodation in the Palace and outbuildings.
5. THIRD PARTY
OCCUPANTS
Figure 10
THIRD PARTY OCCUPANTS OCCUPYING SPACE ON THE ESTATE
| Category | Primary Locations
| Staff |
| Police and Security | Palace (mainly Lords areas); 1 Canon Row
| 474 |
| Press | Palace | 174
|
| CPA and IPU | Palace; 7 Millbank
| 22 |
| Broadcasting and Recording | Palace; 7 Millbank
| 33 |
| Services | Palace; Portcullis House
| 79 |
| Amenities and Clubs | Palace; 1 Canon Row
| 13 |
| BAPG | 7 Millbank | 1
|
| Ex-Members' Committee | 2 The Abbey Garden
| 1 |
| Contractors | Palace, Norman Shaw North; 7 Millbank;
1 Parliament Street
| 119 |
| Total Staff | | 916
|
| (Source: Accommodation Review Phase 1 Report. Updated February 2006)
|
| |
|
Police and Security
35. There are more than 470 officers maintaining the
security of the Estate. 650m2 (36%) of the area allocated to the
police is administrative office, control centre and training space,
chiefly in 1 Canon Row. The remaining 1,265m2 comprises access
points, lockers, changing rooms, kitchens and mess rooms, predominantly
in basement areas not usable as office space. Increases in Police
numbers to respond to rising security threats are putting considerable
pressure on Police accommodation.
Press
36. Parliamentary correspondents from national and local
news organisations are based in the Press Gallery areas on three
floors behind the Chamber. 850m2 (58%) of the space is densely
occupied office accommodation, the remaining 610m2 being ancillary
areas such as the bar, library, dining and function rooms. The
refurbishment of the Press Gallery area is currently underway.
The temporary Times hut is being removed, and the office areas
are being re-planned in line with health and safety compliance.
As a result the number of desks will reduce from 174 to 152.
Services
37. Post Office (43 staff), Travel Office (7 staff),
and Telephone Switchboard (29 staff in windowless space).
Amenities and Clubs
38. Florist, Hairdresser, Rifle Club, Sports and Social
Club, Westminster Gym.
Contractors
39. Maintenance, services and cleaning. Almost all of
the accommodation occupied by contractors is in basement or windowless
areas with few other obvious usages.
6. ESTATES STRATEGY
Strategic Plan
40. In July 2005 the House of Commons Commission agreed
a Strategic Plan for the period 2006-11. The Plan identified accommodation
and works as a priority area and noted that:
41. "Space on the Parliamentary estate is at
a premium. During the planning period it will be necessary to
take a strategic look at how space is used to ensure a good alignment
with the delivery of primary objectives. It will also be necessary
to develop a long-term investment strategy that will provide accommodation
that is fit for purpose and is maintained to an appropriate standard."
42. The 2006 House of Commons Corporate Business Plan
provides further detail on how this priority area will be tackled:
improving poor quality space to agreed minimum standards, instituting
longer-term planning and making optimal use of existing space.
As the Business Plan makes clear, existing financial plans do
not include provision for a further significant expansion of the
Parliamentary Estate either for additional office accommodation
or for new services such as the proposed Visitor Centre for which
the House has indicated approval in principle.
43. A 25 year Estates Strategy is in early development
by the Parliamentary Estates Director, and is awaiting the outcome
of the Administration Committee's Report to be further developed.
The Estates Strategy is based on the assumption that the projected
growth in Parliamentary activity will be accommodated within the
existing Estate. It will look at ways to upgrade and improve existing
accommodation. A number of tentative possibilities for reorganisation
are being prepared.
Decant Requirement
44. The House is currently leasing 1,800m2 of office
accommodation on two floors of 4 Millbank, providing about 200
temporary desk positions to enable major works planned across
the Estate over the next 3-5 years requiring significant moves
of occupants of all categories.
45. There is an ongoing requirement to ring-fence such
temporary or "decant" accommodation, to enable maintenance,
temporary projects, and reorganisation of the occupancy of the
Estate. The approved recommendation from the 2003 Accommodation
Review is 5% of the total office accommodation, which equates
to 1,800m2, equivalent to approximately two floors of 7 Millbank.
Furnishing and Technology Standards
46. Standards are laid down for the provision of facilities
within accommodation on the Estate in order to support the activities
of Members and staff appropriately.
47. Members are each currently provided four telephone
lines for voice and fax services. Staff of the house are allocated
their own telephone line where necessary. Each workstation is
provided with access to the Parliamentary network.
48. Furnishing Standards for Members' offices were provided
in 2003. A copy has been made available to the Administration
Committee. The standards seek to provide guidance to staff on
the levels of service which are to be provided and ensure equality
and transparency of allocation. They maintain a consistency of
furniture style which is appropriate to the Palace and its various
outbuildings. A corresponding set of furnishing standards for
staff of the House is planned.
16 March 2006
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