§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish information about the staffing levels in organisations sponsored by his Department.
§ Mr. HeseltineI am today publishing a set of tables showing staffing levels in over 30 organisations sponsored by the Department of the Environment, together with the Department's own manpower figures and those of Ordnance Survey, for which I am also responsible. The tables show numbers of permanent and temporary staff in each organisation on 1 January 1981 and indicate changes over the previous quarter and the previous 12 months. Further tables will be published each quarter.
I am anxious that organisations I sponsor should adopt the same tight approach to manpower budgeting as my own Departments. Since May 1979 the number of permanent civil servants in the DOE has been reduced by 10.5 per cent. and in Ordance Survey by 5.2 per cent. The regular publication of management information acts as an important discipline. Manpower information is particularly important because staff costs account for a high proportion of expenditure. Some information is published already, in annual reports for example, but until now anyone who wanted to see the full picture of staff levels in my Departments and the public bodies we sponsor had to do a lot of research. The new returns complement the quarterly manpower returns for local government which have been published for some years by the Joint Manpower Watch. I am grateful to the organisations concerned for their co-operation.
Copies of the tables have been placed in the Library.