Response
Introduction
Committee Recommendation 1
We focus unapologetically in this Report on the
rights and needs of Members of Parliament, in whose interests
the House has appointed us to act. As we will show, the accommodation
available for Members has improved dramatically in recent years
with the expansion of the Parliamentary Estate into new and refurbished
buildings to the north of Bridge Street. Many Members now have
adequate office accommodation at Westminsterbut some still
do not. We examine why this is the case, and we assess the scope
for improving both the extent and the quality of the accommodation
available. We acknowledge that accommodation is a limited resource,
and we suggest ways in which this resource could be used more
efficiently. The numbers of staff of the House and Members' staff
have grown significantly in recent years: they also have a right
to expect decent accommodation, and we consider the extent to
which this accommodation can be provided at Westminster without
infringing on the justified expectations of Members. (Paragraph
3)
1. Following the Committee's Report, a major study
of the current accommodation on the Estate has been undertaken
in conjunction with property management consultants HOK. The
study aimed to confirm the current capacity of the Estate and
how this can be optimised; develop environmental and facilities
standards against which accommodation can be rated; develop ICT
systems to support tighter management of accommodation; and review
the requirements of the various occupants of the Estate other
than Members to be in particular areas. This follow-up response
updates, where required, the original responses to the Committee
to reflect the outcomes of the study.
Occupants and their accommodation needs
Committee Recommendations 3, 25, 26 & 27
The Select Committee on House of Commons (Services)
in 1991 put forward minimum space standards for Members' offices
of 8-10 sq m per person in existing buildings and of 15-20 sq
m per person in Portcullis House. HOK more recently has proposed
a space standard for a Member's office of 12.5 sq m per person.
Both the Committee and HOK have also proposed space standards
for Members' staff. The space standards proposed to date are adequate
in so far as they go and have largely been met, but sufficient
space is only one criterion for adequate accommodation. (Paragraph
41)
An estate strategy is long overdue. We welcome
the recognition by the House Administration that the Estate is
an asset which needs to be managed strategically over a longer
timescale than other parts of the House's corporate business.
(Paragraph 118)
We recommend that the strategy should set standards
for all occupants of accommodation on the Estate and that a programme
should be devised for achieving these standards. Those who exercise
control over accommodation in practice need to be held accountable
for ensuring that these standards are met. (Paragraph 119)
The strategy will need to establish processes
for achieving the efficient use of available accommodation and
for dealing with anomalies in its allocation. All office accommodation
should be rated to establish a reasonably objective measure of
quality for the benefit of both those in occupancy and those responsible
for allocation. (Paragraph 120)
2. The Commission has endorsed a new outline accommodation
strategy. The main elements of this strategy are:
- As a priority, to address the
substandard areas of Member accommodation identified by the Committee.
- To move towards the application of agreed space
standards as opportunities arise and unless specific tasks demand
otherwise.
- To develop information about costs of accommodation
that will better inform decisions about requests for additional
staff or the provision of new services.
- To identify additional office accommodation in
the immediate area of the Estate to directly or indirectly provide
suitable decant accommodation for Members and their staff and,
if agreed by the House, provide additional space for education
facilities.
- To make better use of areas currently used for
storage.
- To keep under review the need for third-party
occupants to be on the Estate.
- To periodically assess options for reducing the
need for staff accommodation at Westminster (eg through outsourcing
or greater homeworking).
- To seek sufficient leased accommodation in Westminster
to meet anticipated medium-term business needs.
3. This outline will be developed into a properly
programmed and costed strategy as part of the Estate Strategy
currently being developed by the Estate Board. It is expected
that this will be presented to the Commission later this year.
4. As the Committee's report (recommendation 3) noted,
previous work has been undertaken to define appropriate space
standards. The Commission has agreed to move, as opportunities
allow, towards standards of 12.5m2 for Members and Heads of Department
and 7.5m2 for all other occupants, unless specific tasks demand
otherwise. HOK's analysis suggests that, if these standards were
adhered to, there could, theoretically, be significant increases
in estate occupation. However, there are a number of practical
problems; for example, many of the buildings on the Estate are
not easily re-configured and there is likely to be significant
resistance to developing the working practices necessary to achieve
the higher occupancy densities. A particular opportunity will
arise when Norman Shaw North is refurbished: using rooms in different
configurations after refurbishment might create 60-70 additional
desk spaces for Members' staff. There are some areas of staff
accommodation (eg 7 Millbank) where progress can be made more
quickly; however, consideration needs to be given to issues such
as the additional pressure that would be placed on the infrastructure
of the building and services such as catering.
Committee Recommendations 4 & 5
We believe that all Members if they wish should
have sole use of an office located within the secure part of the
Parliamentary Estate, whose space, quality, furnishing layout
and IT services are up to modern standards. (Paragraph 41)
We recommend that no Member should be required
to share an office with another Member if they do not wish to
do so. (Paragraph 43)
5. These recommendations were agreed on the presumption
that larger offices will be occupied in a way which achieves the
new space standards ie by Members who are prepared to share them
with their staff. Accommodation standards are being finalised
and the Committee will be asked to endorse them in May 2007.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION 6
We recommend that the Serjeant at Arms with the
Government Accommodation Whip should explore Ministers' requirements
for accommodation within the precincts of the House and should
come back to us with proposals if it seems that these requirements
at times of peak demand can be met more economically through innovative
use of space. (Paragraph 56)
6. The Serjeant at Arms raised this issue in principle
with the Government Accommodation Whip and Opposition Chief Whip
in autumn 2006. Subsequently, discussions have taken place on
an outline proposal for creating shared Ministers' Suites. The
feasibility of these proposals is now being considered through
the usual channels.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS 8, 9, 28, 29 & 30
We and our predecessors have taken the consistent
view that Members should have priority over office accommodation
in the Palace above those staff of the House with no clear business
need to be there. (Paragraph 64)
The House Service must recognise that it is in
its own interests to occupy no more space than is needed to do
its work. (Paragraph 66)
We recognise that any proposals for further construction
or the acquisition of new buildings can only be justified once
every effort has been made to use the existing Estate as efficiently
as possible. (Paragraph 122)
We recommend that there is an urgent need for
a complete and up-to-date central overview of who is based where
on the Estate and the space that they occupy, available to both
the Serjeant at Arms and the Accommodation Whips, to allow for
properly informed joined-up planning for future accommodation
need, and for security and health and safety purposes. (Paragraph
121)
A new study is needed to prioritise occupancy
within the existing Estate, to ensure that location, space, quality
and layout of accommodation are matched to occupants' needs as
closely as is possible within the constraints of the existing
buildings. (Paragraph 122)
7. The recent HOK study identified a number of areas
where accommodation is currently under utilised. It noted the
requirement to enhance and refurbish the northern Estate, in particular
Norman Shaw North and 1 Parliament Street, to improve accommodation
for Members. To achieve this swiftly and efficiently will require
the identification of suitable decant accommodation and detailed
programming; both of these will form part of the Estate Strategy.
8. The study has also indicated that reconfiguring
some of the existing accommodation for House staff in 7 Millbank
could increase the capacity of that building. The resulting accommodation
will need to remain suitable to support the work of the House
and its committees. It is expected that this increased capacity
will form part of the additional accommodation that is required
to enable some House staff, who do not need face-to-face contact
with Members, to be relocated from the Palace and northern outbuildings.
Again, a detailed plan for this will be part of the Estate Strategy.
9. As the first part of this process, room G28 in
Norman Shaw North will be re-designated as a Member's office from
June. Plans are being drawn-up to move House staff from a number
of rooms in the North Curtain/Speaker's Flat area of the Palace.
This will require additional staff desks to be located in the
Members' Library. Again, the rooms vacated will be re-designated
as accommodation for Members and their staff. Detailed proposals
will be brought to the Committee.
10. When suitable alternative accommodation is available,
it is intended to remove House staff from a room on the first
floor of Portcullis House, which will enable the creation of an
additional meeting room in that building. It is proposed that,
as a consequence, Conference Room D on the fifth floor of 1 Parliament
Street will then be re-designated as a good-standard office for
a Member.
11. When the contract for the telephone operator
bureau is next re-let (possibly in 2009), consideration will be
given to relocating this outside the Palace, or, possibly, off
the Estate entirely.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION 12
We recommend that the Lobby Briefing Room should
be made available for booking as a meeting room by other occupants
of the Estate, on the understanding that these bookings might
have to be moved or cancelled at short notice if the room were
required for Lobby briefings. (Paragraph 76)
12. Agreed. Discussions have been held with the Press
Gallery Lobby Committee and the Administration Committee will
be asked to consider a detailed proposal in May.
Committee Recommendation 14
It is important to continue to explore opportunities
to bring into use space which is currently classed as unusable.
We recommend that all space currently classed as unusable should
be systematically analysed to identify whether it might be brought
into use and that the results of this analysis should be brought
back to us on a rolling basis as soon as they are available. (Paragraph
83)
13. The study undertaken by HOK looked at areas of
the Palace that were currently unused. They concluded that the
majority of rooms at basement level are unsuitable for use as
offices in permanent occupation since they have no access to daylight.
There may be opportunities for better use of basement areas as
the current work to review the services (gas, water, heating and
electricity), which are distributed via the basement, progresses.
HOK recommended that part of the strategy for making more efficient
use of floor space at ground level and above in all buildings
on the Parliamentary Estate should be to reduce the amount of
stored material. A study will be commissioned to help departments
and others to rationalise and reduce their storage requirements.
The House is also undertaking a pilot project to assess the benefits
of an Electronic Data and Records Management system. One of the
anticipated benefits would be a reduced requirement for the physical
storage of documents.
Constraints
Committee Recommendation 15
Following a period of recent growth, we have to
accept that the Estate is unlikely to expand further to any significant
extent during the current planning period. (Paragraph 86)
14. In recent years the intention has been to avoid
major new acquisitions of office property other than for temporary
projects and decanting during refurbishments. However, given recent
trends and the absence of mechanisms to limit demand for accommodation,
it is likely that a shortfall in accommodation will emerge in
the next parliament even after steps have been taken to make more
intensive use of existing space. Options for reducing the need
for staff accommodation at Westminster will be periodically reviewed;
however, the Commission has agreed that the House should also
seek to secure sufficient leased accommodation in Westminster
to meet anticipated medium-term business needs.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS 16, 31 & 32
There are legal, practical, aesthetic and historic
reasons which mean that it is both difficult and undesirable to
make significant alterations to the Palace; but the accommodation
within it leaves a great deal to be desired. (Paragraph 88)
The standard of some accommodation on the Estate
is unacceptable for full-time office work by anyone, let alone
by Members of Parliament. This accommodation needs to be improved,
or its use changed, as a matter of urgency. No Members or predominantly
desk-based staff should be in windowless accommodation at the
beginning of the next Parliament. (Paragraph 125)
We recommend that refurbishment and redesign of
the areas identified in the paragraphs above should be carried
out by the end of 2009 at the latest, following consultation with
us as to the options available. (Paragraph 132)
15. A priority will be to address the areas of substandard
accommodation that the Committee identified. This will require
the support of the Accommodation Whips. Work to reconfigure the
windowless offices on the Upper Committee Corridor North and South
will be added to the 2008/09 work programme. This will create
rooms of appropriate size, utilising the windows in the western
wall. However, this is dependent on finding suitable alternative
accommodation for Members whose current offices will be lost in
the process. Lower Ministers windowless offices are unacceptable
for daily occupation and an alternative use will be found for
them. Again, this will require alternative accommodation for existing
occupants.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION 19
We accept the need for decant accommodation to
be preserved to enable maintenance, temporary projects and reorganisation
of the occupancy of the Estate. We note, however, that it is not
always well understood why offices, sometimes good offices, need
to be kept empty when there is demand for this accommodation.
We therefore recommend that any decant requirement should be justified
and explained to relevant stakeholders, including Members. Accommodation
which is used infrequently or irregularly should also be justified.
(Paragraph 110)
16. Work in developing the Estate Strategy has identified
a requirement for 'decant accommodation' suitable for occupation
by Members during major refurbishments of their accommodation.
Undertaking refurbishment work solely during summer recesses is
less practical than in the past (because it is now more likely
that Members and their staff will want to be at Westminster during
at least part of the recess), involves a substantial cost premium
(perhaps 50%) and makes it difficult to complete sufficient work
each year to prevent deterioration in the overall standard of
the estate. While there will be significant costs associated with
the acquisition of this decant accommodation, these will be offset
by the savings in refurbishment costs. Particular works leading
to a requirement for decant accommodation in the next decade are
likely to include:
the
repair to the cast iron roofs of the Palace of Westminster that
is expected to be disruptive and will continue while the House
is sitting. This begins in 2008 with the roofs around Speaker's
Court.
Norman Shaw North refurbishment.
1 Parliament Street refurbishment.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS 21-24
Where one group of occupants or another claims
to need more accommodation, lack of certainty over how accommodation
is being used and who it is being used by makes such claims difficult
to assess objectively. (Paragraph 113)
It is important that the allocation of accommodation
to Members of each and every political party should comprise a
reasonably equitable cross-section of the rooms available across
the Estate. (Paragraph 114)
Members' needs for office space vary principally
according to the numbers of staff they wish to locate at Westminster.
But these needs alone do not explain why some Members have more
than six times as much space at their disposal as others. Where
Members occupy substandard accommodation, this may be because
of a lack of sufficient adequate Members' accommodation; but it
may also be because of how the Members' accommodation available
has been allocated. (Paragraph 116)
The current wide discrepancies in the accommodation
allocated to individual Members do not help to make the case that
Members may need more overall space on the Estate. (Paragraph
117)
17. HOK has developed an accommodation grading tool.
All rooms for Members and Members' staff have now been graded
and the results are now being prepared in a format which is easy
to use. This information will be made available to the accommodation
whips in early May.
Proposals
Committee Recommendation 33
The roll-out of wireless access to the Parliamentary
Network and to the Internet from within the Parliamentary Estate
should be of use in reducing the demand for fixed workstations
for temporary staff and possibly for others as well. (Paragraph
134)
18. Building on the interim wireless solution that
was installed in the atrium area of Portcullis House, PICT has
completed a procurement for a longer-term solution which will
extend wireless coverage to other suitable areas of the Parliamentary
Estate and also provide "guest" access for Parliamentary
users with suitable non-centrally provided laptops. Implementation
of this service should commence in the second quarter of 2007.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION 34
ICT systems also need to be improved:
a) so that constituency staff are not at
a disadvantage compared to their colleagues at Westminster; and
b) to enable electronic file storage to provide
opportunities to free up space occupied by paper files and shelving.
(Paragraph 135)
19. These issues were addressed in the evidence and
proposals which PICT submitted to the Committee as part of its
inquiry into parliamentary ICT. PICT is waiting for the Committee's
report on ICT services before finalising a business case that
will seek funding to provide the improvements to constituency
support that are being sought.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION 35
We recommend that, as indicated in the House's
Corporate Business Plan, new guidance on furnishing offices for
Members and their staff should be drafted by the Serjeant at Arms
and brought to us for our endorsement as soon as possible. (Paragraph
138)
20. The Committee will be asked to endorse accommodation
standards in May 2007.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION 40
Given the pressures for space on the Estate, it
is not normally appropriate for rooms above 20 sq m to be in occupancy
by a single person. This rule applies as much to staff of the
House and third-party occupants as it does to Members. (Paragraph
144)
21. This recommendation was agreed. Progress towards
implementation will be made as the space standards are adopted
(see response to recommendations 3, 25, 26 & 27).
Committee Recommendation 42
We recommend that a number of Members' staff desks
should be set aside for temporary staff, and a booking system
should be put in place to allow Members to use them for that purpose
for a limited period at a time. Once this has been done, Members
should lose permanent staff desks allocated to them if they fail
to ensure that they are used consistently over an agreed period.
(Paragraph 146)
22. The SAA Accommodation Manager is now managing
the use of Members' staff accommodation outside Members' rooms
more actively. She has already been able to agree the re-allocation
of a number of desk spaces which have not been used consistently,
and has agreed to some temporary use in the way the Committee
recommended. It is too early to formalise these arrangements.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION 43
Better co-ordination of Members' staff accommodation
is required, including a proper process for the allocation of
desks and regular monitoring of how the desks are used. (Paragraph
147)
23. SAA Accommodation Services staff have begun closer
monitoring of the use of Members' staff accommodation. There remains
a need for the development of IT systems to facilitate this. The
issue is being discussed with PICT with the intention of including
system development in the ICT programme.
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