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WQ.363/2020
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER
BY DEPUTY R.J. WARD OF ST. HELIER ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 6th OCTOBER 2020
Question
Will the Chief Minister provide a full breakdown of costs for the period May 2018 to the present for the following –
- administrative support for the 21 members of the Government (Ministers and Assistant Ministers); and
- provision of office facilities for the 21 members of the Government?
Answer
In order to answer the Deputy 's question, it is important to understand the rationale for the structural changes made in June 2018. Following the findings of both C&AG, PAC and Scrutiny over the last five years and the due diligence work that was carried out between October 2017 and January 2018, Ministerial support has now been consolidated and/or centralised as part of the Office of the Chief Executive to address these issues.
Past reviews found that Ministers were not always served well due to a lack of coordinated support and advice across the government.
In particular it was identified that there was:
• Lack of dedicated support to improve the timeliness of Ministers decision making and joint working
• Outdated infrastructure and governance arrangements to support a performance driven organisation
• Outdated working practices in terms of decision making, priority setting and forward planning
• More specifically the due diligence found that there was not a culture of serving ministers well
• Insufficient clarity between officers and Ministers
• No dedicated Ministerial support to build alignment between Ministers, their departments and their Senior Management Teams
However to date, the Chief of Staff Office and Ministerial Support Unit (MSU) has been funded to date by temporary funding sources, even though staffing has been in place since 2018. A settled structure has now been established. This was originally discussed and agreed as part of the 2020 Government Planning arrangements with an agreement to bring forward in the 2021 Plan (once the Target Operating Model arrangements had been settled).
The underlying rationale for the improvements made by the formation of the MSU were set out on pages 106 and 107 of the Government Plan 2020 - 2023, as part of closer working between Government and the States Greffe. This also included an additional £2.3m of expenditure on "States Greffe extended services" to facilitate these improvements.
The total costs for the provision of administrative support to the 21 Ministers and Assistant Ministers are given below. This support, provided by the staff of the MSU, enables a range of functions, beyond just administration. These functions were previously provided to Ministers from budgets and teams across the different Departments within the organisation. The centralised MSU has meant that a more coordinated, joined-up support service is being provided.
The services provided by the MSU include:
• Enabling the efficient and coordinated flow of information between Government Departments and Ministers.
• Supporting Ministers in preparation for the States Assembly and for Scrutiny hearings and briefings.
• Acting as the Scrutiny Liaison between Ministers, their Departments and Scrutiny, ensuring queries are fielded and information provided in as timely manner as possible.
• Facilitate and coordinate the Council of Ministers and other significant ministerial meetings, most recently including the Emergencies Council and Competent Authorities Ministers meetings.
• Provision of a research service for Ministers and Assistant Ministers.
• Response to public queries and correspondence directed to the Ministers.
• Diary and travel management.
• Liaison with the Communications directorate for press queries, briefings and interviews.
• Coordination of Members' briefings.
• Record keeping and filing.
• Provision of procedural advice.
2018 (May – Dec) | 2019 | 2020 (9 months Jan - Sept) | Comments |
259,083 | 612,886 | 1,017,147 | As part of the One Government organisational changes, the Ministerial Office was created during 2018, and continued to develop in 2019. The figure for 2020 reflects the full costs of the team. |
(b)Whilst it is hard to isolate costs for the provision of physical office facilities within the wider Broad Street building for the 21 Ministers and Assistant Ministers, the MSU consists of an office for the Chief Minister, a shared office for the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for External Relations and a shared hot desking facility for the remaining 18 Ministers and Assistant Ministers. The estimated cost of providing this, including the office space for the members of staff of the MSU, is £247,124. The breakdown for this estimate is as follows:
May – Dec 2018
Printing and Stationery 12,907 Telephones 12,440 Fuel and Power 15,483 Facilities Management 59,400
Jan – Sept 2019 2020 12,213 10,881 6,605 8,768 13,539 0 94,888 0
It should be noted that it is presently envisaged that better facilities for States Members might arise out of the office accommodation strategy. More information on this will be forthcoming in the next few months.