Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of its proposals to relocate HM Revenue and Customs staff to a regional office in Glasgow on disabled staff.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) conducted a high level people impact assessment using known workforce management data to inform the regional centre location decisions. People and equality impacts are managed at both programme and regional level to mitigate potential impacts on different groups, including disabled staff. The regional people and equality impact assessment is undertaken early in the project and is updated on a regular basis throughout the project.
All staff are offered a one-to-one discussion, normally about a year before any office move which affects them, to establish whether they can move. Under the reasonable adjustment policy, HMRC will work with individuals with particular needs to identify any adjustments required to enable this. Accessibility to regional centres has been factored into overall requirements for those centres from the outset.
As previously announced, the Glasgow Regional Centre is expected to have between 2,700 and 3,000 full time equivalent posts when it opens. East Kilbride will be retained as a transitional site beyond the opening date of the Glasgow Regional Centre until 2025-26. The number of current full time equivalent staff employed at the offices which will feed into the Glasgow Regional Centre is shown in the table below.
Location | Office | Closure date as announced | Full Time Equivalent Employees as of 31/08/2017 | Destination by 2021 |
Cumbernauld | Accounts Office Timing depends on Accounts Office in Shipley | 2019-20 | 980 | Glasgow Regional Centre |
Glasgow | Portcullis House | 2019-20 | 800 | Glasgow Regional Centre |
Glasgow | Cotton House | 2019-20 | 570 | Glasgow Regional Centre |
East Kilbride | Plaza Tower | 2020-21 | 750 | East Kilbride Transitional Site |
Glasgow | Cotton House | 2019-20 | 1600 | East Kilbride Transitional Site |
Specific details about the rental liability of the current HMRC offices in the Glasgow area is commercially sensitive information; disclosing it could compromise the future ability of the landlords to re-let the buildings.