Gloucestershire Civil Servants from GCHQ, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, HM Revenue & Customs, Job Centre Plus, and the MOD Service Personnel Veterans Agency (SPVA) are banding together this Christmas under the auspices of the Civil Service South West (CSSW) network to collect for the homeless in the Gloucester area.
The five Civil Service agencies will collect clothing, toiletries and bedding for Gloucestershire’s Emergency Accommodation Resource (GEAR), the only direct homeless charity in Gloucestershire. Appropriately, the campaign will be called, ‘Pants for Christmas’.
A spokesperson for GCHQ said, “GEAR performs critical work relieving sickness, poverty and distress, particularly amongst the county’s street homeless. This work is particularly important during freezing weather. GCHQ have done similar collections for GEAR in the past, working in collaboration with others to make a real difference for the homeless”.
A HM Courts and Tribunals spokesperson said, “We recognise that the festive season is a particularly difficult time of the year for the homeless. We are therefore delighted to add our support to the ‘Pants for Christmas’ campaign and staff throughout Gloucestershire will be donating used clothing and toiletries between the 5th and 9th December'
A spokesperson for SPVA said, “Staff at SPVA are delighted to have the opportunity, once again, to join with our Civil Service South West colleagues in helping our local community with this worthwhile cause. Everyone is really pulling together to get involved and make ‘Pants for Christmas’ a big success”.
Lisa Billard of HM Revenue & Customs said: “Our Gloucestershire staff are donating essential items to the ‘Pants for Christmas’ campaign to support homeless people in the area. We hope their generosity, and that of their friends and families, provides help where it is needed most this Christmas time.”
For more information please contact the GCHQ Press Office:
pressoffice@gchq.gsi.gov.uk
01242 221491 Ext 33847
Notes for Editors
- Gear Projects is based at The Vaughan Centre, 159 Southgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 1EX, Tel: 01452 523655. To find out more about their work for the homeless, please refer to their website: http://www.gearprojects.org/index.php
- Civil Service South West is an innovative programme designed to bring all government departments and agencies across the South West of England together to work collaboratively on common issues that affect the many civil servants they employ. The programme uses the strong regional presence, its scale and diversity, to benefit all civil servants and, through them, the public they serve. The main aim of the CSSW is to develop a Civil Service in the South West that is an employer of choice which attracts, develops and retains people from all backgrounds and representative of the communities they serve.
- Service Personnel and Veteran’s Agency is part of the MOD and provides essential support functions to the Armed Forces and veteran’s communities. These include Forces pay, HR, medals, casualty repatriation and compassionate services, pensions, injury/bereavement compensation and veterans’ welfare support. Veterans can get advice and welfare support by calling the veteran’s helpline 0800 169 2277 or by visiting www.veterans-uk.info
- HM Courts and Tribunals is the agency responsible for the administration of the criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It provides for a fair, efficient and effective justice system delivered by an independent judiciary.
- HM Revenue & Customs is the government department that ensure the right tax is paid at the right time, whether this relates to payment of taxes collected on behalf of HM Treasury or entitlement to and payment of child benefit and tax credits. They also enforce and administer Customs legislation, environmental taxes and the National Minimum Wage.