Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Wednesday 19th December 2012 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

1. How many full-time equivalent civil servants were employed in York in May (a) 2010 and (b) 2012.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

The number of full-time equivalent civil servants employed in York on 31 March 2010 was 2,390 and on 31 March 2012 it had reduced to 1,980.

[Hugh Bayley]

With electronic communications improving all the time, it is hard to justify having so many civil servants in London and so few in other parts of the country, such as my constituency, where rents and overheads are so much cheaper. Will the Cabinet Office carry out a strategic review of the number of civil service posts in London that could be relocated to cities such as York?

[Mr Maude]

There have been endless such studies, including under the last Conservative Government and the Government of whom the hon. Gentleman was a member. The truth is that the number of civil servants in central London is much higher than it needs to be, and it is already falling. We are concentrating the numbers into the central London freehold estate, which is significantly reducing our costs, but there is further to go.