In April 2003, the deputy prime minister and the chancellor commissioned Sir Michael Lyons to advise ministers on the relocation of civil service posts out of London and the South-East, as part of a wider programme to reform public services. The resulting review was published in 2004, entitled 'Well Placed to Deliver? Shaping the Pattern of Government Services'.

• Download the Lyons review report 'Well Placed to Deliver? Shaping the Pattern of Government Services' (HM Treasury website)

What and who this guidance is for

This section of the website is intended to help you, as a government department, take account of the implications for race equality when developing your relocation proposals.

In late 2005, the CRE's director of policy and public sector, Nick Johnson, wrote to public sector organisations to advise them of the importance of considering race equality implications as part of their relocation proposals. You can download this letter from the right-hand side of this page.

Where a business case has been made for the relocation of your department, you must consider how the proposals may affect racial equality. You must make sure that proposals are not implemented in a way that results in unlawful racial discrimination, and it is equally important to look at how you can implement each proposal in such a way that it promotes equality of opportunity and good race relations.

We are not endorsing or rejecting the principle of relocation in this guidance. The aim is to help you to make sure that you give adequate attention to racial equality when considering or introducing relocation proposals.

The intention is that this guidance will offer you an overview of points to consider, for you to then explore and assess in greater detail. We have given particular consideration to current and future workforce profiles, choice of relocation site, and service delivery. The contents of this guidance are not exhaustive, and different points will be of greater or lesser relevance to different departments, depending on the nature of policies being developed.

You should make sure that your relocation proposals seek to:

• eliminate unlawful racial discrimination in employment and service delivery;
• avoid any adverse impact in employment and service delivery;
• reduce any adverse impact on the current and relocating workforce, where proposals are necessary to meet a legitimate aim, and causing some adverse impact is unavoidable;
• work towards a representative workforce; and
• promote racial equality through the choice of relocation site.

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How to use it

The guidance in this section is divided into nine parts.

We recommend that you read through each of the nine parts in turn, using the 'Next page' links at the bottom of each page to move through the guidance.

You can jump straight to any of these by clicking on the links under the heading 'This section' on the right-hand side of this page.

You can print off the full text of the guidance by clicking on the link at the top of the right-hand column of this page.

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Definitions used in this guidance

The term 'department' is used here to refer to government departments, including their agencies and arm's length bodies, that submitted proposals to the Lyons review.

The term 'relocation' is used here not just in relation to the remit of the Lyons review, but to the location of government business. It is therefore also relevant to situations where a lease may be due to expire, or where a department has been significantly restructured.

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Other resources

Further guidance on how to integrate regional economic and wider policy aims into location decisions has been published jointly by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), the Treasury, and the Office of Government Commerce.

• Integrating policy aims into location decisions (ODPM website)

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