§ Mr. Wingfield Digbyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many civil servants were employed in the agricultural executive committees for Dorset and Somerset, respectively, in 1956–57; what was the cost of their salaries and wages and the total transport costs; and what were the comparative costs of the combined service in 1961–62 or the last convenient year.
§ Mr. Scott-HopkinsThere were 194 executive, clerical and field staff in Dorset and Somerset in 1956–57, of which 76 were in Dorset and 118 in Somerset. Their total annual salary costs were £119,000 which, in terms of present day salary costs, would be £150,000.
The staff of the combined counties is now 202, with a salary cost of £160,000. This small increase in numbers is accounted for by new schemes and by extensive devolution of work from Headquarters since 1957. If the two counties had continued as separate units there would have had to be a much bigger increase in numbers to cope with the extra work.
I regret that details of transport costs for 1956–57 are not now available.