Manpower and financial savings since amalgamation

1240/5(2201)

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICES COMMITTEE BY THE DEPUTY OF ST. JOHN

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY, 9th NOVEMBER 2004

Question

As the Committee has now encompassed the former Planning and Environment Committee and part of the Agriculture and Fisheries and Public Services Committees over the passed 21 months, would the President advise members –

( a ) of manpower savings that have been achieved by the rationalisation of these Committees? ( b ) the financial savings that have been achieved, in figures, across the entire area?

( c ) of the progress of the proposal to separate the planning function from the remaining functions of the

department, and when this is likely to occur?

Answer

When the States approved P.70/2002, the decision to amalgamate the Public Services Committee and Planning and Environment Committee was taken on the basis that there were functions within the two Committees that needed to be reviewed and, where necessary, moved in order to provide clarity and clear distinction between regulation, policy and operations. The amalgamation was not made with a specific aim to reduce staff but, clearly with any initiative such as this, it is always the intention to seek out efficiencies and make savings where appropriate. One of the first tasks was to move the Water Resource section from Public Services to the Environment Section of the Committee in order to provide a clear distinction between the operations section and regulator.

In specific answer to the question raised, I can advise as follows –

1. si n cethebeginningof 2003 to date, three postshave been saved within the combinedEnvironmentand Public ServicesCommittee and the former Agricultureand Fisheries Committee.These are Chief Officer, Planning andEnvironment,EnvironmentalAdvisorto the States and a Finance Manager from Agriculture and Fisheries.

M  e m bers will be aware that early in 2004 the change programme was launched and the Fundamental

Spending Review for 2005 commenced. These programmes identified a number of savings required for 2005 and in some cases, savings over a three and five year period have been identified for certain areas within the Committee. As a result of this programme, in 2005 there will be 32.80 posts saved, some of which have already been achieved as staff vacancies have occurred.

In t h e case of the ex Agriculture and Fisheries sections that have transferred to Environment and Public

Services, the savings will be achieved over a three year period commencing in 2005. In the Parks and Gardens section, a five year change programme has been agreed commencing in 2005; however, as staff vacancies have occurred, these savings have already been taken.

In th e Meteorological service, a saving of 6 posts has been identified for implementation by 2006;

2. t h e financial savings achieved from the three staff savings are £286,922. The budget cuts imposed throughout thecombined departments in2003/4have resulted in savings in the orderof £1.5 million being achieved although obviously theCommitteereceivedsomegrowth in key service areas to be set against this. Throughout 2004, the Committeehas been preparing for the implementationofthe2005 FundamentalSpendingreview that requires further savings to beachieved in the orderof £1.85 million;

3. t h e proposal to split the planning function was highlighted in P.203/2002 – Strategy for the Future Resourcing of Planning and Building Core Services. The proposition indicated that the Committeewould investigate the feasibility of setting up a separate planning and building agency. Previous Committee's have considered this option and decided to keep the service in-houseas to separate the planning and building control process from planning policy wouldresult in the loss of co-ordinationbetweenthesetwo key elements of the planning process.

W  h e n the previous Chief Officer of the Planning and Environment Department retired, a single Chief

Officer for the combined Environmental and Public Services Committee was appointed in September 2004. One of the key objectives for this post is to identify and implement the remaining changes that are required in the Department to ensure the organisational changes required for Ministerial Government are in place by December 2005. In the first two months a number of significant changes in the administration areas have been made to streamline the organisation and plans are being developed for further organisational changes that will be implemented in the first half of 2005. It is only through this appointment of a single Chief Officer having total control that it has been possible to thoroughly review all areas and produce plans that will deliver the effective services to the public in the future.

I d o n ot anticipate any separation of the existing Committee structure until the end of 2005."