Oral Answers to Questions

Rachael Maskell Excerpts

Thursday 25th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Julia Lopez]

My hon. Friend raises a very important point. Along with our procurement reforms, the Cabinet Office has also created a new Central, Digital And Data Office under expert leadership, and through that, we want to improve digital capability and expertise across Government. We also want to create many more opportunities for tech start-ups and other dynamic digital SMEs to bid for Government work, and the CDDO team is closely engaged in how we can do that through the forthcoming procurement Bill.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

What plans he has to move civil service jobs to York.

[Giles Watling (Clacton) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to deliver civil service jobs outside London.

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[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Michael Gove)]

As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, naturally, my heart is always in the north-west of England. However, I am delighted that more civil service jobs will be moving to York. I am also delighted that other Departments have made their own announcements about the relocation of senior positions in our civil service, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announcing plans to create a second headquarters in Wolverhampton, the Treasury creating an economic campus in Darlington, alongside the Department for International Trade, and, of course, DIT has established trade and investment hubs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Cabinet Office has also announced that our second headquarters will be located in Glasgow, with 500 officials to be located there, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has established a joint headquarters in east Kilbride with 1,000 new roles relocating to Scotland.

[Rachael Maskell [V]]

First came the promise on the House of Lords, then it was the northern Government hub, then some Cabinet Office jobs, with hopes raised and then dashed in York—one of the worst hit economies from covid-19, yet one of the best connected northern cities, with a brownfield site adjacent to the station and full of people eager to serve. Will the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster set out the framework within which his Government determine which locations are recipients of central Government jobs, resources and projects across the piece, so that we can all understand whether transparency or cronyism is driving this Government? And exactly how many jobs will York get?

[Michael Gove]

Transparency drives everything that the Government do—that and a commitment to levelling up and ensuring that our Union is stronger. That is why we are moving jobs to Glasgow, a beautiful city that, sadly, has not flourished as it might have done under the Scottish Government’s stewardship over the course of the last 14 years. It is also why we are moving jobs to York, the city that the hon. Lady so ably represents alongside my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy). We will be increasing the number of Cabinet Office jobs in York by 50% in the coming months, and it is not just the Cabinet Office; other Government jobs will be coming to York as well, because, as she rightly points out, its transport connectivity, its historical connections and its potential for brownfield renovation all make it a superb site for investment.