Government slammed over decision to merge skills department

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Central Government and also in Education

Leaders of senior civil servants today condemned the Government for "wasting" millions of pounds of taxpayers' money by abolishing the skills department.

The FDA, which represents 18,000 senior civil and public servants, condemned the decision to merge the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Dius) with Lord Mandelson's business department (Berr), just 20 months after it was set up.

FDA leader Jonathan Baume said the Government should be held to account for "wasting" more than £7 million of taxpayers' money, adding: "Merging it back in to Berr can only be assumed to be for party political expediency rather than for better government.

"There is a responsibility on Parliament to ensure that the Government is held to account for this entire farce.

"Ministers don't seem to grasp how much time and money is spent in setting up a new government department, or in merging work into a new department.

"There are accommodation moves, printing of vast quantities of headed stationery and forms, the alignment of business systems - including the IT and finance functions - and on top of this, considerable work required on the people aspects of a department. Ironically, these discussions are just concluding in Dius as the department is abolished. It is very expensive, time consuming and demanding of resources.

"All of that time and money expended on this process over the past 20 months has been wasted, and more is to be spent on the incorporation of Dius into Berr. It is time and money diverted from helping those in need of education and training at the very time when this is needed most."

The merger was also condemned by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

ASCL general secretary Dr John Dunford said: "At a time when schools and colleges are having to prepare for a 1% efficiency saving next year, it is appalling to see the amount of money the Government will have wasted on first setting up and now dismantling Dius in under than two years."

He added: "Two years ago I stated clearly that splitting the DCSF was a bad decision, not only because of the additional cost but because of the detrimental effect on the work of schools and colleges.

"Moving colleges along with higher education into the newly formed Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is hardly likely to be a step forward."

Shadow innovation, universities and skills secretary David Willetts said: "It is a complete shambles. Gordon Brown set up Dius in a great fanfare during his first week as Prime Minister. Now he has shut it down just as his premiership is coming to an end.

"It must hold some sort of a record as one of the shortest-lived Government departments ever."