Parliament's call centre could move to Southampton (From Daily Echo)
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Parliament's call centre could move to Southampton
9:18am Thursday 7th June 2012 in Business
By Tom Moseley, Parliamentary Correspondent
The Palace of Westminster, better known as the Houses of Parliament
IT’S 80 miles from Big Ben – but Southampton is set to house the new call centre for the Houses of Parliament.
The Daily Echo has learned that the city is in line to be the base for the new parliamentary switchboard in an attempt to save £1m.
Capita Symonds, the company awarded the contract to run the service, insisted no decision has been made.
But it admitted it was considering the move to the south coast.
It is understood that daytime calls would be taken in Southampton, and at evenings and weekends they would go to Swindon.
Currently 26 people operate the switchboard, currently based in a grand room above the Commons chamber.
It is not known how many staff will be used in the relocated office.
John Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, said: “I suppose we should be grateful it’s not Bombay.
“I think it will strike many people as odd that the House of Commons cannot run this service in-house, but from a Southampton point of view I welcome any jobs that come here.”
Outsourcing giant Capita, which recently took over control of the switchboard, manages services on behalf of local and central government, including Southampton City Council.
A spokesman would not confirm where in the city the centre would be based.
The operators handle thousands of calls every day from people trying to reach MPs and members of the House of Lords.
The Capita spokesman said: “We can confirm that we are considering moving the Operator Bureau to Swindon and or Southampton, but at present no plans are confirmed.”
Comments(18)
Linesman
says...
10:07am Thu 7 Jun 12
StevieSteve
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10:17am Thu 7 Jun 12
Lol!
Home Rule for England
says...
10:18am Thu 7 Jun 12
Linesman wrote:Having watched the BBC's coverage of the Jubilee I would have thought BBC accents are the last thing a call centre would want!
The difficulty could be in recruiting people who speak the Queen's english with a BBC accent.
St Retford
says...
10:54am Thu 7 Jun 12
hythe knights
says...
11:00am Thu 7 Jun 12
RedArmy1
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11:24am Thu 7 Jun 12
WE ARE SOUTHAMPTON AND WE RULE THE SOUTH. COYR.
RED ARMY 2012. WIN.
BillyTheKid
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11:46am Thu 7 Jun 12
RedArmy1 wrote:Do one.
On to Footballing Matters :
WE ARE SOUTHAMPTON AND WE RULE THE SOUTH. COYR.
RED ARMY 2012. WIN.
Goldenwight
says...
11:48am Thu 7 Jun 12
Linesman wrote:Based on my knowledge of call centres in general, and Capita staff in particular, those who speak the Queens English would be an improvement.
The difficulty could be in recruiting people who speak the Queen's english with a BBC accent.
Thank you for calling the Houses of Parliament. Your call is being held in a queue. Your call is important to us so please hold until you get irritated and throw the phone down in disgust.
soton-mike80
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12:06pm Thu 7 Jun 12
loosehead
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12:37pm Thu 7 Jun 12
soton-mike80 wrote:News of possible jobs is good news & we should welcome them not go on about accents.
I think this is great news for the city (if it happens) - it may lodge in minds of other large corporations that Southampton is the place to be. Good news for employment and good news for local economy!
if we're picked this could be the thin edge of the wedge & could be the start of more employment for this city So Great News
elvisimo
says...
12:47pm Thu 7 Jun 12
St Retford wrote:London provides a net subsidy of 20.3% of GDP. If you are interested.
It's only a handful of jobs but the principle here is a good one. London is subsidised by the rest of the country to a quite ludicrous degree, so I'm all in favour of them spreading the functions of government around the country so as to share the wealth a little bit.
ohec
says...
12:51pm Thu 7 Jun 12
hythe knights wrote:Silly comment Bombay is here and New New Delhi and a certain baroness has already learned how the system works.
Perhaps they can move parliament to bombay seeing as they are all so out of touch with the people.
Poppy22
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1:08pm Thu 7 Jun 12
southy
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1:53pm Thu 7 Jun 12
St Retford wrote:With the lost of jobs in London no real gain for the country only more tax money being filtered into private hands.
It's only a handful of jobs but the principle here is a good one. London is subsidised by the rest of the country to a quite ludicrous degree, so I'm all in favour of them spreading the functions of government around the country so as to share the wealth a little bit.
SaintM
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6:22pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Beer Monster
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8:01am Fri 8 Jun 12
SaintM wrote:Agreed - I used to work for their pensions subsidiary (formerly Personal Pensions Management) in Salisbury. Within a year they'd made half the company redundant.
capita is not known as crapita for a reason by its staff, no new staff will be employed just added to already existing staffload like the city centre staff who secretly also do work for wandsworth council and others which capita will not tell us about to keep costs down staff overworked and increased profit.
Aside from that, isn't Bombay known as Mumbai these days?
loosehead
says...
10:06pm Sat 9 Jun 12
I can't get over this are Unite for real or is this April fools day?
They want a bonus to do their normal job because the Games are on?
Does that mean when the Rugby World Cup is on in 2015 they'll want extra money just to work?
Let anyone say I'm just a Union basher after this I HATE UNITE
10 Minute Man says...
9:55am Thu 7 Jun 12