Staff emails drop 20% following Government HQ move

Tuesday 26 February 2019

The number of emails sent by government employees has dropped by 20%, CEO Charlie Parker has stated amid grilling over the recent £1million per year move from Cyril Le Marquand House to Broad Street.

Hundreds of government workers this month relocated to the former RBC building after it underwent renovations as part of Mr Parker's 'One Gov' plans - a move he says has already improved efficiency.

The comments were made during a quarterly hearing with the Public Accounts Committee – a panel of politicians and lay members responsible for reviewing how effectively public money is spent and looked after. 

The hearing saw Mr Parker quizzed about what criteria had been used to decide which staff would move to Broad Street. The Government’s CEO explained that part of the decision had been driven by a “split” between customer-facing and non-customer facing staff. This, he said, led to the creation of the 'Customer and Local Services Department' on La Motte Street, which groups together staff from Social Security, Planning, and Customs and Immigration Services.

Pictured: The Customer and Local Services Department on La Motte Street.

The non-customer facing staff, including 500 staff from former government headquarters Cyril Le Marquand House, departmental senior leadership teams based in the hospital and Highlands College, as well as HR and people services based in Durrell House, have been brought together under one roof at Broad Street. Mr Parker said Information and Communication Technology (ICT) staff could also be brought in, freeing up Jubilee House. 

He described the Broad Street move as “one of the first big stages” of his modernisation programme, aimed to bring people under one roof while reducing the number of people in a variety of offices.

He said the government wanted to generate a front-office and back-office organisation to improve efficiency - something he says has already been achieved in the short time employees have been at Broad Street.

“There has been a 20% reduction in emails,” he told the Panel, “Because people talk to each other, see each other.”

Pictured: Maintaining Cyril le Marquand House was becoming too costly, Mr Parker told Scrutiny.

Asked what kind of financial benefits had been considered when making the decision to move, Mr Parker remained vague. He said Cyril le Marquand House cost a lot to maintain but didn’t quantify how much this was. He also said it wasn’t fit for purpose and couldn’t be maintained to modern standards. He claimed this was also a problem with La Motte Street, which had previously been touted as a potential site for a future government headquarters.

Pressed further, Mr Parker said that the business case for the premises change sets the bill for maintaining Cyril Le Marquand against the cost of refurbishing the former RBC building.

Despite the States Assembly having voted to proceed with a £38million social housing development at Ann Court, an area which had been earmarked for new Government headquarters, Mr Parker said the ambition was still to have one single site for all government workers.

He did not state where this could be, but previously told Express in an interview that it should be located in an area of St. Helier in need of regeneration.