§ Mrs. Winifred Ewingasked the Minister for the Civil Service what is the total staff of the Central Office of Information, the location and the functions of this office and the cost of this office to Gov- 318W ernment funds in each of the last two years.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisThe Central Office of Information is a common service Department which supplies publicity material, services and advice to other Government Departments at home and overseas. The headquarters are in London and it has nine regional offices in England. The COI works in close collaboration with the Scottish Information Office, the Information Division of the Welsh Office and the Northern Ireland Information Services.
On 1st April 1975 the staff of COI totalled 1,330, of whom 1,217 were employed at headquarters and 113 in the regional offices. The total costs for the last two years were:
1973–74 1974–75 £000 £000 22,238 23,266