Department for Transport to sell off Swansea’s Shared Services Centre

The Department for Transport says it’s planning to sell off its Shared Services Centre in Swansea.

275 people work at the centre, employed by DVLA but providing ‘back office’ services across the Department.

According to a DfT source, whoever wins the contract – which would start at the end of 2012 – would be obliged to remain in Swansea for ten years  with the Government promising to buy its HR services like payroll and invoicing for other departments.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond says that

the Cabinet Office and DfT have agreed that the DfT’s SSC, once sold to the private sector, will become one of a small number of centres that will provide back office services to Government departments. The Cabinet Office will announce in the New Year how it expects other departments to implement its strategy for shared services.

In other words, the claim is that, once privatised, the number of jobs at SSC should increase rather than fall.

Staff that transfer to the new private contractor would, according to the Department spokeswoman, have their conditions protected under the TUPE process.

The unions are likely to take a different view. I’ll update as soon as they respond.

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