§ Mr. Edelmanasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many public appointments are within his gift; and what is the cost to the Treasury.
§ Mr. MasonI assume that my hon. Friend has in mind salaried appointments to public bodies, where the salaries are met from public funds, outside the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Services, in which case the answer is "None". I do, however, make a large number of unsalaried appointments to standing committees, advisory bodies, boards of trustees, and similar organisations, but it would involve disproportionate effort and cost to public funds to list all these.