Appendix: Government response
Letter from Mark Sedwill, Permanent Secretary,
Home Office, 19 March 2014
The Civil Service People Survey 2012 (Paragraph
5)
After the 2012 People Survey, the Home Office Executive
Management Board agreed a set of actions to revitalise staff engagement,
in particular by Board members' increased visibility, new leadership
development and training, Home Office Excellence Awards celebrating
the success of teams, and Directorate action targeted on specific
and local issues. A central part of this was a series of 48 interactive
"Viewpoint" events hosted by me and all other Board
members, across the Home Office, engaging over 2,400 managers.
In the 2013 Survey, the Home Office overall engagement
index score increased by three percentage points to 52%, with
the biggest shifts in respect of the themes of learning and development
(up six points) and leadership and managing change (up four points)
- a heartening indication in the year of transition from UKBA
to the new borders and immigration system. Engagement scores in
UK Visas and Immigration, Immigration Enforcement and UK Border
Force (the former UKBA), about which the Committee noted particular
concern, are higher than in 2012.
There is still much to do to build on this and we
are continuing to pursue a combined strategy of corporate and
local action. Last month I launched Viewpoint 2014, open to all
staff and hosted again by me and other members of the Board. This
will focus on Transformation and the Home Office Improvement Plan
published in February. We will also further increase our leadership
and training programme with a particular emphasis on fundamental
management skills, and securing improvements in the areas covered
by Survey questions around inclusion and fair treatment.
The Spending Challenge (Paragraph 7)
The Home Office has a good track record in achieving
savings and has delivered within budget throughout the 2010 Spending
Review period, in particular through reducing costs by moving
to Annualised Hours contracts, consolidation of estates, and sharing
services across corporate functions. 2014-15 allocations across
the Department should also enable us to deliver within budget,
in particular through driving out further savings in Corporate
Services and commercial contracts. We are on track to reduce administration
spending by 50% in the five years to 2015-16.
We are conducting an Efficiency Review as part of
our SR13 settlement, with the help of HM Treasury and the Cabinet
Office Efficiency & Reform Group. The Review aims to identify
how the Home Office will make efficiency savings in order to live
within the existing Spending Round settlement for 2015-16 and
into the next Parliament given that major pressures on the public
finances will continue. The Review focuses on the following
key areas: commercial savings, corporate services and efficiencies
across the Criminal Justice System.
Procurement (Paragraphs 11 and 12)
In line with Government ICT strategy, new or renewed
ICT contracts will be disaggregated where appropriate. We
are also now examining whether disaggregation would be appropriate
for all other planned procurements over £5m. This will
form part of a new and more robust assurance process before any
procurement activity commences.
The Cabinet Office has recognised the importance
of managing relationships with strategic suppliers and their performance
across Government to realise the full benefits to the delivery
of public services. The Home Office is compliant with the mandated
Cabinet Office SSRM (Strategic Supplier Risk Management) policy,
which can be used to manage the risk of under-performance by strategic
suppliers. Where a supplier is designated as high risk on the
grounds of under-performance, the supplier and HMG agree an improvement
plan that aims to manage and reduce the risk of a supplier's under-performance.
All central Government organisations are informed of the designation,
which is otherwise private, and the improvement plan is shared
with them.
In light of recent events surrounding G4S and Serco,
the Home Office has completed an independent audit of all its
contracts with both suppliers. No evidence of overcharging or
fraudulent activity was found. Additionally, a separate exercise
has been conducted to review contract management procedures for
all the Home Office's major contracts. This has identified some
areas for improvement that the Home Office will implement.
Police procurement (Paragraphs 16 and 17)
When I wrote to you on 19 December I explained that
35% of expenditure on non-ICT goods and services flowed through
collaborative frameworks in 2010-11. The same is true for 2011-12.
We have examined carefully what can be brought within national
and regional arrangements by May 2015. Some spending is on long
term contracts for facilities management, or on Private Finance
Initiative contracts which run beyond 2015 and cannot be addressed
through national or regional arrangements before then without
incurring significant termination costs or risk of legal challenge.
Other spending is on capital projects specific to particular forces.
These types of spending amount to some £500m pa.
However, we believe that £1bn of the total non
ICT procurement spend could be brought within national or regional
frameworks and we have developed plans to bring 80% of that spending
into national or regional arrangements by May 2015. PCCs have
local accountability for value for money and are key members of
the police led Strategic Police Procurement Board.
Progress with National Police Procurement Hub (NPPH)
implementation has remained frustratingly slow. During the summer
and autumn, work was done with several PCCs and police forces;
some currently using the Hub, others where it has yet to be implemented,
to develop a clearer picture of the current problems and possible
solutions. From this work, a proposal was developed to drive up
usage where the Hub has already been implemented and to complete
implementation elsewhere. I referred to this proposal when I appeared
before the Committee in December.
Such a programme would require a significant further
investment by the Department. I therefore decided that an independent
review of the proposed programme was essential, so that I could
be satisfied that the commitment of further resources would represent
good value for money and that alternative options had been properly
considered. That review was undertaken in early February, informed
by several workshop sessions with forces and PCC offices, and
its recommendations are being considered. I will update the Committee
and the Public Accounts Committee when I have decided how to proceed.
E-borders/Border Systems Procurement (Paragraphs
19 and 21)
I acknowledge and share the desire of the Committee
that the dispute with Raytheon should be concluded as swiftly
as possible. It is not unusual that an international arbitration
of this value and complexity should take a considerable time to
resolve. As I said at the hearing, the Department has done everything
possible to progress the Arbitration as quickly as possible. The
evidential hearings concluded in April 2013 and we are making
further enquiries with the Arbitrators about the likely timescale
of the decision.
The Department remains committed to introducing exit
checks by April 2015. The Border Systems Programme (which encompasses
the old e-Borders programme and other projects) is on course.
Staff remuneration (Paragraph 27)
As the Committee will be aware, the Home Office follows
Cabinet Office guidance on Senior Civil Servants' (SCS) performance
management. In accordance with this guidance, only those
top performing senior staff who make the greatest contribution
to the work of the Home Office are eligible for one off non-consolidated
payments, and these are determined following objective assessment
of individual performance. I remain of the view that these payments
encourage high performers and are one aspect of our overall strategy
for attracting the best people to the Home Office to undertake
some of the toughest jobs in the Civil Service. Last year the
Home Office allocated only 1.1% of the pay bill to bonuses, against
the Cabinet Office guidance of 3.3%.
For staff below SCS there are three options to reward
high performance. Staff can receive a special one-off in-year
non-consolidated performance payment to reward outstanding achievement
on a particular project or piece of work at any time during the
year. The majority of staff given payments during 2012/13, the
year of the London Olympics, received around £500 or less.
In addition, staff can receive a one-off non-consolidated end-of-year
payment based on a consistently high performance throughout that
year. In HM Passport Office only, there is provision until 2014/15
to make a flat-rate payment to all satisfactory performers when
corporate objectives are met. This payment is not based on the
personal performance of staff but the collective achievement of
the Agency's key targets. In 2012/13 staff received a corporate
payment of £500 (this payment was paid on a pro-rata basis
for some staff). I consider these appropriate, notably against
a background of more generous policies elsewhere in the Civil
Service.
Mark Sedwill,
Permanent Secretary, Home Office
March 2014
| 
