Catalogue description Department of the Environment: Establishment Staff Relations (ESR Series) Files

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Details of AT 50
Reference: AT 50
Title: Department of the Environment: Establishment Staff Relations (ESR Series) Files
Description:

This series contains registered files relating to the functions, organisation and complement of the Department of the Environment.

The files concern policy, procedure and precedent, matters involving Crown privilege for documents and oral evidence, and reorganisations of divisions and their functions.

The series includes some files created by the Division's predecessors in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, with some files re-registered into the ESR file series from the EST series: HLG 124
Date: 1949-1991
Arrangement:

The files in this series have been transferred in more than one batch. They are arranged in previous reference order within each accession.
Separated material:

Some files with the ESR prefix were re-registered into the PM series.
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: ESR file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Department of the Environment, Directorate of Senior Staff Management, Establishment Staff Relations Division, 1972-1976

Departments of the Environment and Transport - Common Services, Directorate of Senior Staff Management, Establishment Staff Relations Division, 1977-1989
Physical description: 225 file(s)
Access conditions: Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1966 Department of the Environment
Selection and destruction information: Routine casework files have been destroyed.
Accruals: Series is accruing
Administrative / biographical background:

The Directorate of Senior Staff Management was first created in 1971, after the reorganisation and rationalisation of the various establishment and management directorates which had been inherited by the newly created Department of the Environment (DOE). Until the formation of the DOE, these functions had been carried out by the Directorate of Establishments in the Ministry of Public Building and Works (until 1970) and by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government's Establishment and Organisation Division (until 1966) and their Establishment Division (from 1967 to 1971).

The directorate was responsible for personnel issues relating to senior staff, and its duties were met by two divisions:

  • Establishment Staff Relations Division, which was responsible for personnel management of senior staff, public appointments, Whitley Council, liaising with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, pay and conditions of service, the framing of staff rules, and fees for ad hoc appointments. Gradually these responsibilities were extended to include staffing questions of fringe bodies and, by the mid-1980s, responsibility for staff restaurants.
  • Public Sector Superannuation and Top Salaries Division, which dealt with local government superannuation and the remuneration of board members of public bodies in transport, housing and local government.

Until the formation of the Department of the Environment, these functions had been carried out by the Directorate of Establishments in the Ministry of Public Building and Works (until 1970) and by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government's Establishment and Organisation Division (until 1966) and their Establishment Division (from 1967 to 1971).

After the creation of a new and separate Department of Transport in 1976 the Directorate of Senior Staff Management was one of the groups which provided a common service to both departments. Thus the Establishment Staff Relations Division operated for both the Department of the Environment and the Department of Transport.

In 1989 the Directorate of Senior Staff Management was abolished. The Establishment and Management Services Directorates were re-organised and two new directorates were created: the Directorate of Administrative Resources, and the Directorate of Personnel Management. The former Top Salaries Division and Establishment Staff Relation Division were replaced by Division 4 and Division 2 of the Personnel Management Directorate respectively.

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