Here is an interesting statement ‘offshoring saves British tax payers money’- a stark contrast indeed to Gordon Brown’s famous nationalist missive ‘British jobs for British people’. That’s the headline that was writ large across the Times front page this Wednesday. Another offshoring bashing article ensued reigniting the debate over the perceived evils and benefits of the offshoring concept.

The story looked at the British Council’s decision to outsource 100 jobs at to India as part of a massive cost-cutting drive to save taxpayers’ money. The council it seems has finally realised the possible benefits of using offshoring to augment performance in the UK. Sticking their heads above the parapet like this was a necessity for them but also represents the first public sector organisation to make such a bold (and deplorable in most media’s eyes) move.

Final decisions about which jobs will go to India will be taken in the next few weeks but they are expected to include 58 finance posts, up to 40 IT posts and 15 posts for a new centre of excellence. This is the first time the civil service body has directly exported jobs to save costs. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which funds the British Council, is exploring similar options.

The council, which promotes British culture and language abroad, said that 500 of its 1,300 British workers would have to go in the next 18 months to save 45 million pounds. More than a fifth of these posts are to be filled in India and the body plans to bring some of the Indian recruits over to 'shadow' finance staff in Manchester.

As per usual, the tangible economic arguments of offshoring’s real benefits are being conveniently lost amid the union hubbub. But it does put the debate back on the table and allows the NOA license to have its two-cents on the issue, something that is often difficult to convey. It will be interesting to see just how the debate unravels over the next week of so. Will British people want to keep jobs in the country or will they want lower taxes? Will this argument ever be presented so starkly? Will anyone ever make this choice? What a conundrum.

Into slightly less dangerous territory now; only slightly mind. Emap has outsourced its HR, payroll and benefits to NorthgateArinso. The B2B media group has outsourced all HR, payroll and benefits delivery to NorthgateArinso.

The move follows Emap’s acquisition by Apax and the Guardian Media Group in 2008. The contract is part of a wider strategic plan to outsource all IT, finance and HR services, enabling Emap to focus on its objectives for growth. Let’s just hope they don’t start offshoring journalism or they might also find themselves in hot water. Not that offshored journalists would write in fury about jobs being offshored to them…

Yet another decidedly British piece of news was reported on sourcingfocus.com this week. Buckinghamshire County Council partners with Hays for job seekers system.

Buckinghamshire County Council and the UK’s leading recruitment specialist, Hays have partnered to create an easy-to-use system for job seekers that is believed to improve the experience for applicants and once again cost the council taxpayer less. Lower taxes and outsourcing seem to be big news this week.

The new recruitment service aims to make it easier to search and apply for jobs with the county council using online recruitment. This service will also look to reduce the time applications take to process as well as keep applicants up to date on progress. This will be welcome news to those Buckinghamshirites who have found themselves out of a job in these torrid times. Hopefully we’ll all see an upturn in new positions soon to test out the council’s swanky new system.

And to finish up, the Round-Up will pay some diligence to our cousins across the pond. The all American Starbucks has signed an outsourcing contract with Unisys. Starbucks Corporation has selected Unisys to provide data center outsourcing services to support the global coffee company’s continued expansion in China.

It seems simply noone is safe from the Coffee giant. Soon all of china will be able to experience the wonders of the Caramel Macchiato – you’ll never go back, trust us!

Under the two-year contract, Unisys will provide systems management, network management, asset tracking and software image and voice systems management services delivered from the Unisys Global Services Center in Shanghai.

So, to offshore or not to offshore, that is the question? The Round-Up will keep you posted…