Administration CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Unite the Union, Staff Branch

1. We appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the Committee’s review of induction requirements for new Members after the next election. As staff of MPs, many of us go on to work for new MPs after an election, either seeking a promotion, or often being effectively “inherited” by the successor to their former employer.

2. New MPs frequently rely on experienced staff to help them settle into their role, which is of course a culture shock on election. There are a number of specific areas, however, where we feel that the House authorities could assist in inducting new members.

Training as Employers

3. We do not know how many MPs have had management experience before being elected, but this is certainly not a requirement for election, and large numbers of MPs do not have this background. We are in favour of mandatory training for all new intake MPs on how to be a responsible employer and how to manage staff effectively. This would include matters such as all their legal obligations to their staff, the need to have a bullying and harassment policies in place, the need to send staff on a data protection course, and the merits of annual appraisals, as well as other topics.

4. Annual appraisals, for example, are very effective to review the year past and also set out objectives for the next year. They also encourage MPs to think about career development for their staff, promote active discussion of what skills their staff have and what might need improvement, and how to go about that development through relevant training for example. Although some MPs hold appraisals, many do not, and this should be a concept that is raised when members are first elected and recruit their office.

5. For quite some time, new MPs and staff were not allowed to activate their parliamentary email accounts until they had completed an afternoon IT course, but MPs are given a staffing budget of over £100,000 to spend without having needed to demonstrate any experience in managing staff, which seems strange!

6. There is written guidance available in the HR handbook but that will mostly stay in offices on a shelf until needed, so we believe that something like hour-long sessions would be preferable, so that MPs can take as much in as possible verbally and be pro-active about being good employers.

7. We would hope that such training would not only lead to more productive and efficient offices, but would prevent some of the breakdowns in work relationships that lead to the trade union getting involved in grievances and disciplinary cases. In addition, it would be interesting to know what proportion of MPs have relevant experience of managing staff before their election, and this might be something about which the committee may wish to enquire.

Accommodation Standards

8. One of the early tasks for a new MP is to set up their constituency offices. However, according to our members, this accommodation is often substandard and we think some would not pass an occupational health and safety check. It is important for MPs to know that these checks are available through billing IPSA, and that they should be conducted after taking on a new office.

9. In particular, MPs need to realise that they are legally responsible for the conditions and safety. Elements like fire doors are not an optional extra, and IPSA maintains a specific budget to improve security measures, which are especially important if surgeries are to be held there. Attached as an annex are some of the comments that our members made in our staff survey last year that detail security concerns working in a number of constituency offices.1 These are the sort of matters that should be addressed, and the MP should know how to do that.

Other Areas

10. There are a number of areas where MPs can claim assistance from IPSA to help their staff in their jobs, including eye tests, reasonable adjustments for disabilities, alarms and security cameras for constituency offices, overtime procedures, and so on. It would be helpful if MPs can be briefed on this by IPSA when elected so that they are aware that these are wholly legitimate options to improve their staff’s service.

11. MPs should also be made aware of the training options that are available for their staff, particularly as there has been an issue in making this available for constituency-based staff. Working with Capita, in the past year, we have succeeded in getting training courses on data protection held in Bristol and Greater Manchester, but with greater awareness, we would hope that the House would become more proactive in organising this.

12. We also believe that it would be beneficial if new MPs were made aware of staff organisations like us and the Members And Peers Staff Association, so that they can point staff in our direction if they wish.

Max Freedman
Chair
UNITE 1/427
Representing Staff of MPs

1 March 2013