When will the Office Strategy will be published and is the development of the strategy proceeding according to schedule

5.2   Deputy R.G. Le Hérissier of St. Saviour of the Minister for Treasury and Resources regarding the publication of the Office Strategy:

Will the Minister advise the Assembly when the Office Strategy will be published and whether the development of the strategy is proceeding according to schedule?

Senator P.F.C. Ozouf (The Minister for Treasury and Resources):

I have delegated matters for property services to Deputy Le Fondré who, I would be grateful, could answer the question.

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré of St. Lawrence (Assistant Minister for Treasury and

Resources - rapporteur):

Yes, the department will be producing a high-level plan for the development of core office accommodation, hopefully before the summer recess.

1. Deputy R.G. Le Hérissier:

Would the Assistant Minister acknowledge that this policy has been subject to interminable delays, political in-fighting and that many people, including himself, are highly dissatisfied with what has happened?

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré:

It is an interesting question. I think it would be helpful to explain where we are. Where we are is that a fairly extensive report was produced earlier on last year and it clearly identified obviously that the States offices are inefficient as they currently stand. Put simply - and I have said it before in the States - we have more desks than

employees and we should be having less. That report in itself established a considerable amount of base data and obviously demonstrated that there were savings around. As a guide, you can turn around and say that the estate - I think it is more than half the estate - is over 70 years old. More than two-thirds of the estate in area is over 30 years old. As a guide, we have something like 195 square feet on average used per work station and that is per person.

The Bailiff :

Are we going to keep this reasonably brief?

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré:

I am going to try to. But the point is there are a lot of issues out there and as a guide what we are trying to do is we are trying to get that down to about 100 square feet.

Now we have done all sorts of evaluations on about 20 sites in and out of town. We have had discussions with a variety of organisations, including the M.O.D. (Ministry of Defence), the B.B.C. and certain local authorities to get experiences or understand how they have done these experiences in the U.K. (United Kingdom) and obviously need to put a Jersey twist on them. But there is a lot to learn from them and they were prepared to come and talk to us. So there is a lot of work being done but there is another stage of work to be done and ...

The Bailiff :

I am sorry, you are going to have to cut this short.

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré:

I think that is where we are. I think to say there is a lot of work being done; we have to get some more done as well.

2. Deputy T.A. Vallois of St. Saviour :

Could the Assistant Minister advise whether this will be part of the C.S.R. (Comprehensive Spending Review) seeing as it will not be released before the summer recess but whether it will be within the documentation due to be received by scrutiny panels on 23rd April?

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré:

I cannot comment as to what is in the C.S.R. It would seem logical that there are

potential savings that would arise from the Office Strategy as I understand them and

therefore they would form part of the benefit from the C.S.R.

3. Connétable A.S. Crowcroft of St. Helier :

Will the Assistant Minister undertake to bring to the States when he brings the strategy detailed breakdowns of the costs involved in compiling the strategy?

[10:15]

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré:

There is absolutely no problem on that instance. I think also that what is very important is that a financial evaluation is done of the various options offered under the strategy.

4. Senator S.C. Ferguson:

The Public Accounts Committee in approximately 2006 recommended that a charging structure should be installed by 2009, and this was in one of our reports. It would seem that there are perhaps insufficient resources and what further work is required to move the project forward?

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré:

In relation to the charging mechanism, firstly I fully support the principle of a

charging mechanism. I do not believe you should be in this day and age having an

estate of something like £1 billion-odd and not recognising the value of that property

when you are making decisions. There have been some completely realistic reasons, or reasonable reasons, for the delays that have taken place. Some have been in the actual implementation of a proper I.T. (information technology) system on the matter and you need to get the base data correct and understood and properly managed before you can get the charging mechanism in place. However, that I.T. system, as I have understood, is imminently about to be signed-off. It has been in the process of being implemented for the last few months. In my understanding it is either live or in the process of going live as we speak. So from a physical obstacles point of view, there should no longer be any problems from moving that part of the strategy forward.

5. Deputy R.G. Le Hérissier:

I wonder if the Assistant Minister could tell us when we can see the implementation of the Office Strategy.

Deputy J.A.N. Le Fondré:

If by "implementation", the Deputy means concrete poured into the ground, then the Business Plan did lay out a time schedule of something - I think it was last year's Business Plan for 2010 - over a period up until 2014. As I have said, the timetable is very dependent on making sure you get the work done correctly and even the likes of the C.B.I. (Confederation of British Industries) recognise that your base data and evaluation needs to be robust before you define the solution. The issue there is that there is a property solution and it is also the ...

The Bailiff :

No, I am sorry, this is a question on dates; I think you have given the dates