HC Deb 09 February 1956 vol 548 cc1785-6
10 and 11. Mr. D. Price

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) the total number of people employed in the Civil Service; and how many of them have been specially trained in techniques of modern scientific management and especially in work study; (2) the total number of civil servants engaged full-time on the application of work study and on other recognised techniques for improving administrative, productive and clerical efficiency; and what percentage of the total Civil Service they constitute.

Mr. H. Brooke

There are about 650 civil servants engaged whole time on Organisation and Methods, work study, and similar techniques. In addition, there are a large number of others who have been given special training and experience in this field. There are about 636,000 non-industrial and about 420,000 industrial civil servants.

Mr. Price

Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that he will press ahead with this policy of training civil servants in work study? If his right hon. Friend's injunction to increase productivity is to have any meaning, must not the Civil Service show a better example than it has shown so far?

Mr. Brooke

My hon. Friend is being unfair to the Civil Service. In fact, in the matter of Organisation and Methods, the Civil Service has led the whole country. I am very proud of the Organisation and Methods Branch of the Treasury, which, I think, is unequalled elsewhere.

Mr. Hynd

Is the Financial Secretary aware that most civil servants do not enjoy a five-day week, and that most of them are at work on Saturday mornings, when most businessmen are on the golf course?

Mr. Brooke

This is not a question relating to the whole of the Civil Service. I took it that my hon. Friend was asking what we did about O. and M. and work study, and I said that I was very proud of our record in that respect.