§ Mr. David Howellasked the Prime Minister whether the fall of about 500 in the number of non-industrial civil servants between 1st April, 1968, and 1st April, 1969, includes the replacement of 1,363 of Department's directly employed staff by contract cleaners during 1968–69.
§ The Prime MinisterThe difference in the in-post figures between 1st April, 1968, and 1st April, 1969, reflected a complex series of increases and decreases in the staffing of Departments, including the reduction in the number of cleaners arising from a greater measure of contract cleaning, where economic considerations justified this. A policy of transfer from direct to contract cleaning in these circumstances has been in force for some 10 years and any consequential reductions in the size of the direct cleaning force have always been taken into account in the published manpower figures.