5. Before proceeding with the Marsham Street solution, the Home Office's property advisers identified alternative potential properties in London (Figure 3).13 Although the Home Office looked at locations elsewhere in London it was felt at the time that any location outside Westminster was unsuitable, because Ministers would not want to be located outside the division bell area.14
Figure 3: Properties and locations considered by the Home Office
Property and location | Reason why thought unsuitable |
Stag Place, Victoria | More expensive and slightly smaller than 2 Marsham Street |
Elizabeth House, Waterloo | Inaccessible to Parliament and the rest of Whitehall |
Potential sites available in London Docklands, Paddington and elsewhere | Inaccessible to Parliament and the rest of Whitehall |
Source: Written evidence provided by the Home Office, Ev 14
6. The Home Office is not entirely based in London. The majority of its staff are spread around the country in prisons and ports as well as major office developments in Liverpool, Sheffield and Leeds. The Home Office is now looking at whether its entire current headquarters staff needs to be in central London, following Sir Michael Lyons' review.15 Given advances in Information Technology, the Home Office said that it should be possible to move some services out of London. However, a headquarters building close to Parliament was important because Ministers needed to be supported by staff. Other officials had dealings with Parliament and other Government departments located in London. The Home Office's previous experience of moving most of the Immigration Department to Croydon, Sheffield and Leeds had caused problems, with staff spending considerable time travelling or hot-desking in London.16
7. For the Lyons Review, the Home Office estimated that up to 1300 members of core Home Office staff might need regular contact with Ministers or Parliament. The number of staff in direct support of this group was not estimated but could be perhaps as many staff again. The Home Office did not estimate the number of other staff whose work required them to have frequent contact with other Government departments or major stakeholders.17
8. The Home Office did not always expect to require nearly 3500 staff in London and over a period of years, the number of staff needing to be accommodated in Marsham Street might drop below 3,450. The possibility of increasing the use of new technologies such as video conferencing to enable more staff to work outside London was being reviewed. The current review of staff location would determine whether it would be more financially beneficial for all headquarters staff to remain in London rather than incur the costs of travel, associated disruption and loss of services.18
14 Q 42
15 Independent Review of Public Sector Relocation, Well Placed to Deliver? Shaping the Pattern of Government Service. Report by Sir Michael Lyons to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, March 2004 (ISBN 1-84532-009-3)