Written evidence submitted by the Director
General of Facilities
STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATERING &
RETAIL FUNCTION
INTRODUCTION
1. The House Management Board is under remit
from the Commission to reduce the operating cost of the House
of Commons by at least 17%, in real terms, by the year 2014-15.
A number of short term savings and income generation measures
identified by House Departments have been reflected in the Administration
Estimate for the year 2011-12. Catering & Retail proposals
are, as an exception, being submitted to the Administration Committee's
Catering Inquiry for review and consequently are yet to be agreed.
2. Further short term savings may well be found,
but the Commission expects the balance of the required 17% saving
to be achieved through a service redesign programme, which will
involve a fundamental and strategic review of our arrangements.
The Board wishes to take this review as an opportunity not just
to reduce costs, but also to make improvements in the way we do
our business. A paper on the scope and proposed approach to this
review is presently being prepared, and will be submitted to Member
Committees and the Commission later this month.
PURPOSE
3. The purpose of this paper is to provide the
Committee with early thoughts on redesign approaches likely to
come under consideration, particularly in light of the Catering
Inquiry.
NEW PARLIAMENT:
STRATEGY FOR
THE HOUSE
OF COMMONS
SERVICE
4. The Management Board's headline aim is that
by 2015 the House of Commons will be valued as the central institution
in the nation's democracy. Working with and supporting Members,
we will seek to earn respect for the House; to make it more effective;
to make its administration more efficient; and to ensure that
Members, staff and the public are well informed. A copy of the
strategy document is attached.
SERVICE REDESIGN
5. Service redesign will play an important part
in delivering this vision, and will necessarily involve the development
of our catering & retail operations. In practice, there is
likely to be considerable overlap between the short term proposals
presently under consideration and the more far reaching ideas
expected to be explored under redesign.
6. Redesign is expected to start with a firm
affirmation of the role, and importance, of Parliament, and therefore
of the need to provide fully effective services to Parliamentarians.
It will proceed to identify the scope for improved efficiency:
by delivering services in different, more economical ways; by
generating income in new ways; and where appropriate by reducing
the scope or level of services. As with the short term savings,
where these changes would impact on Member services the Commission,
advised by the F&S and Administration Committees, will have
the final say on implementation.
7. In considering how best to deliver the vision,
we anticipate that redesign will include the development of a
number of themes having a bearing on the development of catering
and retail services, including:
(a) Joint Services We will explore the
potential benefits of combining further services across the two
Houses. A significant amount of joint procurement does though
already occur, and ICT improvements (including improved electronic
point of sales equipment, cashless payment, web based function
and room bookings,; and refrigeration temperature monitoring)
are already being delivered through a bicameral Facilities ICT
programme.
(b) Accommodation Policy The Board will
consider a wide range of accommodation policy issues as part of
the service redesign, covering issues such as staff numbers, space
standards, home working, decant space provision and third party
occupiers.
(c) Market Testing Notwithstanding the
Tebbit review[5]
recommendation that catering should be retained in house, the
redesign work will examine whether CRS functions, either alone
or in conjunction with other hotel type services such as reception
staff, attendants, porters and our in house cleaning, should be
subject to a market testing exercise.
(d) Income Generation Further income generation
opportunities will be considered, for instance through the sale
of merchandise on or off site, both in shops and online; the marketing
of spare capacity in catering facilities; hiring out spaces for
corporate events; hiring out rooms for conferences; and taking
a more robust line on occupancy charging for third party users
of the estate. The savings programme will therefore take account
of the fact that public demand exists for the use of our facilities
(be they catering outlets or meeting rooms) for periods when they
are presently empty or lightly used. Meeting this demand could
generate additional income, but our approach will need careful
consideration. We would not wish services to Members to be restricted;
it would be easy to underestimate the management task (and therefore
some of the costs) involved; Members may not agree that the public
should have more access to our facilities; we would need to impose
controls, on both security and reputational grounds; and we would
want the purpose of such an income stream to be clearly understood,
and recognised, by the public.
ACTION FOR
THE COMMITTEE
8. The Committee is not asked for any decisions
at this early stage, but may wish to note that it will be consulted
as these ideas are developed in the coming months.
January 2011
5 HC 685-Review of Management and Services of the House
of Commons, 25 June 2007 Back
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