During an evidence session on the work of the Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG), public accounts committee chair Margaret Hodge suggested it was “odd” that BIS controls reforms to the government’s estates, while other aspects of the efficiency agenda sit in the Cabinet Office.

ERG chief operating officer Ian Watmore said he agreed that “it’s probably looking less sensible to be sitting in BIS; there’s some work going on to look at whether that’s the right place to locate it.”

He explained that “the original thinking was that property arrangements are more about asset sales”, but “what’s becoming more obvious to us is that property is more about reform of the civil service”, so “we may well make some changes to that [structure] in the future.”

Watmore said the property estate is “integral to the civil service reform agenda. It’s partly about co-location; it’s also partly about the environment in which you set people up to work. If you have a flexible, hot-desking environment, you get more productivity”.

Hodge also questioned the government’s lead non-executive director Lord Browne about departmental boards. He outlined five priorities facing all non-executives: establishing strategic clarity; asking whether people are exercising commercial sense; ensuring that talented people are being trained appropriately; judging whether officials are results-oriented; and making sure that management information is relevant and timely. The ERG is establishing quarterly data reviews to allow “comparability over time and between departments”.

Written by Suzannah Brecknell, CSW