1 The Home Office has got what it wants from the deal at a good price and construction is now underway. It has, however, retained a number of risks that it must manage. In particular:
■ The Home Office still owns the surplus property and in a market that is currently declining. It needs to continue to work with the Office of Government Commerce to achieve value for money for the Exchequer, whether this is by retaining freeholds for use by other government departments or by transferring the property to the private sector.
■ Although good progress has been made in managing the interface between the accommodation and IT projects, there is still a lot to be done. For example, the Home Office still needs to finalise arrangements for maintenance of IT infrastructure in the new accommodation, undertake its procurement and negotiate arrangements for the move itself with the IT service providers. It will be very important to ensure that the IT infrastructure installed by the PFI contractor meets the specified quality standards before it is accepted and we support the Home Office's plans for a robust testing procedure involving all IT service providers.
■ Projected staff numbers for 2005 are currently under review but it is likely that it will not be possible to accommodate all Home Office headquarters staff, including those employed by the Prison Service, in 2 Marsham Street as originally planned. The Home Office is currently examining options but there are no firm proposals at present. It needs to decide how it will accommodate the excess soon in order to determine the budgetary implications as well as manage staff expectations. There is a risk that any continuing uncertainty could mean that some staff might lose interest in the accommodation project and are not committed to their role in securing wider business benefits. It will be particularly important to ensure that staff who do not move to Marsham Street are reassured that alternative accommodation will be satisfactory. The Home Office is aware of this risk and is seeking to address the issue.
2 In the longer term, realisation of wider business benefits is key to the success of the overall accommodation strategy. While the Home Office is not due to occupy its new accommodation until 2005, the experiences of other organisations suggest that considerable time and resources will be required to ensure that the Home Office is ready for the move. The Home Office also needs to develop measures to demonstrate that it is achieving benefits. In particular we recommend that the Home Office:
■ Continues to ensure that there is a fully-resourced project team in place to manage the move to the new building;
■ Develops a strategy for making sure that staff are ready to move to their new accommodation including allaying concerns about the new working environment, piloting any new technology or working practices, providing any necessary training and resolution of storage issues;
■ Identifies ways of developing performance indicators to demonstrate the achievement of business benefits resulting from the new accommodation and of establishing a baseline so that these benefits can be measured throughout the lifetime of the project;
■ Continues to profit from the experiences of other organisations such as the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence in preparing for the move and securing business benefits. The Office of Government Commerce plays a role in sharing lessons across the public sector and the Home Office should use any further opportunities to learn from other departments and to spread good practice.