Assembly Government is considering privatising some services to increase efficiency and save money, Development, Opportunity and Government Services Minister Terry Lister said on Monday night.

Mr. Lister said the Management Services Department would be looking in the coming year to see which services could be "curtailed, out-sourced or reduced''.

The department would also look at the departments of Health, Education and Financial Assistance to look at staffing requirements and to ensure the offices are meeting their mandates.

But he gave an assurance that these changes would not result in job losses.

He said: "Out-sourcing is part of our over-all review. We want to come up with the best things that Government should do.

"The Premier has said that the Civil Service review will not lead to redundancies but will lead to people being moved around to where they can be best used.'' Mr. Lister said his budget would increase by seven per cent to $15,247,000.

Part of this was for the expansion of the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE), the Consumer Affairs bureau, and a capital grant to the Bermuda Land Development Company.

Shadow Development, Opportunity and Government Services Minister Allan Marshall said department spending had increased by $3,259,000, 27 per cent, on 1998-9 when the UBP came to power.

He welcomed the decision to look at out-sourcing and other ways of challenging current staffing levels.

Mr. Marshall called for consideration of all Government records and all Bermuda's laws to be put on the Internet and for an e-commerce site to be established to charge people to search the archives.

Mr. Lister welcomed the suggestion and asked Mr. Marshall to put his ideas in writing.

Referring to Personnel Services, Mr. Lister said staff there had scored the highest rating in the Western hemisphere in the UK-based Investors in People award scheme.

He said the new drug and alcohol testing programme for Government employees in safety sensitive areas was due to be introduced in April and that consultation between managers and staff unions was continuing.

All potential new recruits in safety sensitive jobs -- fire, prisons, police, heavy equipment operators, bus drivers, boats operators with Marine and Ports, air traffic controllers, physicians and nurses -- would have to take a drug and alcohol test before being offered the post.

Supervisors would be able to request a test if they had "reasonable cause'' to suspect an employee was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

All safety-sensitive employees could be subject to unannounced tests based on random selection.

Paternity leave is being introduced for fathers, although Mr. Lister rejected suggestions from Mr. Marshall that there should be legislation to make this compulsory in the private sector in response to complaints that pregnant women are suffering discrimination.

Mr. Lister said Government was in consultaiton with Bermuda Employers Council (BEC) over discrimiation against pregnant women and matters were referred to the Human Rights Commission.

He said the guilty parties always tended to change and that the culprits tended to be small companies.

"We had the chance of going to legislation but we decided not to do that. We are accused of being heavy-handed to business (over the CURE racial monitoring of the workforce) and we are going to consultation,'' he said.

"We have conducted a survey on minimum standards that are acceptable but the problem is many small employers don't hit the standard.

"Human Rights does an excellent job following up and the companies themselves get no support from the BEC, who regard them as renegades.''