Box 6.1: Cabinet Office Statement of Practice

The 2001 Cabinet Office Statement of Practice extended the themes of the Fair Deal across the public sector. It sets out that:

•  contracting-out exercises with the private sector and voluntary organisations and transfers between different parts of the public sector will be conducted on the basis that staff will transfer and TUPE should apply, unless there are genuinely exceptional reasons not to do so;

•  this includes second and subsequent round contracts that result in a new contractor and where a function is brought back into a public sector organization where, in both cases, when the contract was first awarded staff transferred from the public sector;

•  in circumstances where TUPE does not apply in strict legal terms to certain types of transfer between different parts of the public sector, the principles of TUPE should be followed (where possible using legislation to effect the transfer) and the staff involved should be treated no less favourably than had the Regulations applied; and

•  there should be appropriate arrangements to protect occupational pensions, redundancy and severance terms of staff in all these types of transfer.

The Statement of Practice covers the following types of situation that may involve transfers of staff:

•  Public Private Partnerships (e.g. following Better Quality Service reviews). This includes contracting-out; market testing; PFI; privatisation and other outsourcing and contracting exercises;

•  second and subsequent generation contracting where, when the contract was first awarded, staff transferred from the public sector;

•  reorganisations and transfers from one part of the public sector to another; and

•  reorganisations and transfers within the civil service (where TUPE cannot apply because there is no change in employer but TUPE principles should be followed).