Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tristram Hunt on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many jobs in (a) his Department and (b) each of his Department’s non-departmental public bodies, executive agencies, non-ministerial departments, advisory bodies and other accountable statutory bodies (i) have been abolished in or relocated from East Cheshire Local Authority since 2010 and (ii) will be abolished in or relocated from East Cheshire Local Authority by 2020.

Mr Robert Goodwill

In the Department for Transport itself, no posts have been based in East Cheshire Local Authority since 2010.

The Department’s Executive Agencies (Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Vehicle Certification Agency and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) have had no posts based in East Cheshire Local Authority since 2010, other than DVLA.

DVLA Chester Local Office was closed in November 2013, as part of a programme of closures, rationalising the DVLA estate and centralising work at the main headquarters in Swansea. There were 16 Civil Service posts based out of this office. Staff were offered the opportunity to relocate to the DVLA in Swansea. Two staff chose to transfer out to other government departments within the region; one member of staff came to the end of their contract and 13 staff chose to take redundancy rather than relocate.

There are currently no plans to increase or decrease the number of posts in the East Cheshire Local Authority between now and 2020.

We are not aware of any jobs being based in East Cheshire Local Authority since 2010 in the wider accountable statutory bodies.