Oral Answers to Questions

Martin Vickers Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

What plans his Department has to reform the civil service.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

What plans he has to relocate (a) civil service and (b) policymaker roles outside London.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

If he will make an assessment of the potential effect of reductions in civil service headcount on the ability of Government to implement its policies.

--- Later in debate ---

[Martin Vickers]

In his recent Ditchley speech, my right hon. Friend referred to transferring energy sector civil servants and policy makers to Humberside. Will he outline what progress he is making with that, and will he push forward and ensure that the Cleethorpes constituency plays its part?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend is right. I said that there were at least three possible locations for the relocation of jobs in the energy sector: Teesside, Humberside and, of course, Aberdeen. There are already civil servants in Aberdeen working in this area, but we want to ensure that more jobs are dispersed to areas at the forefront of the green energy revolution—and, of course, Cleethorpes is right at the heart of that.