MORE than 600 jobs from the Office for National Statistics in Newport are at risk of being transferred to London, a trade union has warned.

Ex-Bank of England deputy governor Sir Charlie Bean is reviewing how official economic statistics are collected, and his initial findings are due on Wednesday this week.

It comes after the PCS trade union warned that expertise could be transferred to London at the expense of Newport as part of the Bean Review.

PCS union representative Gez Kirby said that they would ‘fight for every job’ that was at risk of being transferred from the site.

He added that of the 2,000 employed at the Newport office, around 600 jobs were ‘in jeopardy’ of being transferred to London.

“If the Bean Review wants to increase economic expertise in London through work or jobs we support that, but we don’t want support it if it means losing jobs from Newport as a result,” he said.

“I think there will be real concern amongst members.”

He added: “If jobs were under threat then we would talk to our members and take a ballot on industrial action.

“If they were to propose moving we would fight for every one of those 600 jobs.”

He added that they has ‘no idea’ what the recommendations would be from the review until they were published, but they were still hopeful of a positive outcome.

“I think that the Bean Review will conclude that we are more than just bean counters and will give us a vote of confidence,” he said.

“If not, there could be problems down the line.”

An ONS spokesman said it was not ‘helpful’ to speculate on the report’s findings.

“ONS has welcomed the Bean Review as a good opportunity to review our systems and processes for measuring the changing UK economy,” he said.

“As the interim report of the review is due to be published shortly, it would not be helpful to speculate about its content. We look forward to reading its recommendations when it is published.”