In advance of a House of Lords debate on a shortlist of delivery options under the Palace of Westminster’s ‘Restoration and Renewal’ programme, scheduled for 18 October 2023, Parliament has issued a discussion and guidance article.
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… phase one of the programme would culminate in a fully costed proposal being presented to both Houses…
UK Parliament writes:
The restoration and renewal programme was created to preserve the Palace of Westminster. In 2022, the commissions of the House of Commons and House of Lords decided to change its governance structure. The progress made in implementing these changes and progressing the programme is outlined in its first annual report, published in July 2023. This article gives an overview of the history of the programme and provides a summary of its annual report. It also highlights plans for both Houses to debate a shortlist of delivery options before the end of 2023.
On 18 October 2023, the House of Lords is scheduled to debate the following motion:
“The senior deputy speaker to move that the Grand Committee takes note of the report from the corporate officer of the House of Commons and the corporate officer of the House of Lords, ‘Restoration and renewal: Annual progress report 2023’ (HC 1603).”
1. Background: Parliament’s restoration and renewal programme
1.1 Initial governance structure
It is widely accepted that the Palace of Westminster needs substantial repair and restoration work to preserve the site and ensure it can continue to be the home of the UK Parliament. As a result, in recent years Parliament has looked to agree a scheme of works to address the problems:
- September 2016: The Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster published a report setting out options for the restoration and renewal (R&R) of the palace.
- January 2018: The House of Commons agreed a motion approving the next steps of work on R&R. This included an endorsement of the joint committee’s recommendation for the palace to be totally vacated to allow the works to take place (‘full decant’).
- October 2019: The Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019 provided for a sponsor body to take responsibility for the programme of works. This was made up of a team of staff and a sponsor board, which included parliamentarians and set the strategic direction of the sponsor body. This body acted in shadow form from July 2018 until April 2020, when it was formally established by the act receiving royal assent. The act also provided for a delivery authority to be responsible for managing the programme.
- March 2021: The sponsor body published its strategic review report, which recommended a full decant of the palace.
- April 2021: The House of Commons Commission asked the sponsor body to assess the impact of maintaining a continued presence in the palace throughout the works.
1.2 Concerns over costs and timings
As requested by the House of Commons Commission, the sponsor body produced the requested initial assessment. This was considered by the sponsor board and commissions of the House of Commons and House of Lords in December 2021 and January 2022.
The estimates at that time suggested that the ‘essential scheme’ (the full decant of the palace) would cost between £7bn and £13bn (excluding VAT) and take between 19 and 28 years, with the palace needing to be vacated for 12 to 20 years. The initial assessment also outlined a ‘continued presence’ study which found that if parliamentarians remained in the building, both the costs and time taken would increase. It also identified “a number of key risks of a continued presence” approach which it argued would need to be addressed. These included fire safety, compliance with health and safety legislation and disruption to parliamentary business.
The House of Commons Commission expressed concerns about the estimated costs and schedule and asked the clerk of the House of Commons to prepare a paper on “potential next steps”. The House of Lords Commission also expressed concerns about the length of the decant period and asked the R&R programme to explore how it could be reduced. The Lords commission also noted the “significant impact” of a maintained Commons presence as well as the associated risks. It therefore agreed not to endorse any further work on the continued presence options and to communicate this to the House of Commons.
1.3 A new approach
In February 2022, the House of Commons Commission proposed changes to the governance and approach of the R&R programme. It suggested that the sponsor body be replaced with a new, separate department to service both Houses, known as the client team. This would report, ultimately, to the commissions. Within this model, the sponsor board would be replaced by a new two-tiered governance structure. This approach was agreed in a joint meeting of the commissions in March 2022. Also agreed were plans to seek independent advice and assurance on the new approach to the works, as well as on the proposals to take forward the decision to replace the sponsor body.
In a joint report in June 2022, the commissions of both Houses set out their proposals for a new mandate for the R&R programme. In July 2022, both Houses of Parliament agreed to implement the recommendations of this joint report and therefore endorsed a new two-tier member oversight structure that would:
[…] “integrate the governance of the R&R programme into the existing governance structures in Parliament, bringing the sponsor function in-house and maintaining the independence of the delivery authority.”
In a debate in the House of Lords in July 2022, the then Lord Privy Seal and leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, explained these proposed changes. She said that they would enable work to be completed to produce the strategic case which would set out options for further development. This would be presented to both Houses by the end of 2023.
The two-tier structure agreed, which replaced the sponsor board, includes:
- The R&R client board: This is made up of both commissions and is responsible for strategic decisions on R&R matters. It started meeting in October 2022.
- The R&R programme board: A cross-party group of parliamentarians, officials and external members with delegated authority from the client board. It was established in February 2023 and meets monthly. The Lords members were appointed by the House.
In January 2023, the corporate officers of both Houses took on legal responsibilities for the R&R programme under the 2019 act. The same month, the client team, which supports the above boards, replaced the sponsor body following a transition project. This team instructs the work of the independent R&R delivery authority, which is responsible for designing and delivering the works.
Throughout these changes the delivery authority remained an independently operated statutory body, although its oversight was transferred to the new governance structure. A new delivery agreement was put in place between the corporate officers (the clerks of both Houses) and the delivery authority to provide a framework for their relationship. The client team has also put in place a task brief for the delivery authority which set out expectations for delivery to support the new mandate and to ensure appropriate oversight.
Further background information on these changes, including some of the reaction to this new approach, is available in the Library’s briefing ‘A new mandate for the restoration and renewal programme’ (6 July 2022).
2. First R&R annual progress report
In July 2023, the R&R programme published its first annual progress report. It stated that the document highlighted the progress made by the parliamentary building works and sought to bring together in one place information relating to the R&R programme.
2.1 Summary of work and next steps
In her foreword, the interim managing director of the client team, Dr Patsy Richards, said that since Parliament approved the new governance structure, work had been underway to “implement the recommendations swiftly”. Explaining that phase one of the programme would culminate in a fully costed proposal being presented to both Houses for approval, Dr Richards said that work had been undertaken to develop and assess a range of options to be considered in depth by the programme board.
Dr Richards explained that these options would be presented to the client board before the 2023 summer recess, with plans to take “a small number of shortlisted options to the floor of each House to endorse as the preferred way forward by the end of 2023”. She said that this would be a key decision and would be consequential for the subsequent delivery of costs proposals which are due to be decided by the Houses in late 2024 or early 2025, depending on the timings of any general election. To support this shortlisting process, Dr Richards said that the client team was preparing a programme of strategic engagement. Further information on these key milestones can be found on pages 24–7 of the report.
Alongside this work, Dr Richards said that thousands of hours of delivery authority surveys had been carried out across the palace. These included, for the first time, intrusive and disruptive surveys to help understand underground conditions as well as drone surveys to assess the condition of stonework and rooftops….
