ONS Plans Move from London

The UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) has told staff it plans to close the London office at Drummond Gate, Pimlico, by 2010. Staff would either be relocated – most of them to Newport, Wales - or made redundant. Unions have reacted angrily to the news.

The ONS cites reduced accommodation costs, closer working relationships and more potential for career development as notable advantages of the scheme, which would also help meet targets set for relocating businesses away from London. In its recommendations to ministers it says a rump of between 50 and 100 staff (from the current 600) would be left in London by 2010, leaving Newport as the corporate headquarters. All statistical work would be moved from London.

The plans indicate that 240 of the London jobs would go sooner - within the next 12 months. In addition to Newport, some staff would also be relocated to the ONS' demographic centre in Titchfield.

Both the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and senior managers union the FDA described the plans as 'ill thought-out'. According to PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka, the move would 'undermine the quality of the statistics that the Government base new initiatives and policies on.'

Among the specific objections raised by unions are deterioration in the ethnic breakdown of staff and the loss of economic experts, if the London base is closed. The PCS said staff were 'livid' at the news and that a threatened national Civil Service strike – already the subject of a ballot because of jobs and pay disputes - is now more likely than ever.

The PCS, 2,000 of whose 325,000 members work for the ONS, fears up to 200 compulsory redundancies as a result of the current plans.

The ONS is online at www.statistics.gov.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.