§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will give the total number of staff employed in his Department on 1 May 1979 and the total staff costs, with similar details for 1 January; and what action he proposes to take to reduce the costs of administration of his Department during the current year.
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§ Mr. PymThe numbers of civilian staff employed on 1 May 1979 and 1January 1980 were 285,000 and 279,000 respectively. These figures include some 37,000 locally engaged civilians overseas and about 22,000 staff of the Royal Ordnance factories which operate a separate trading fund.
The cost to Defence Votes of civilian pay and related expenditure was £101 million in April 1979 and £125 million in December 1979.
A number of reviews of both administrative and productive aspects of the Department's organisation are being carried out, including catering and cleaning, quality assurance, bill paying, supply management, R & D establishments and the Royal dockyards and I shall be considering their outcome during the coming months. In addition, later in the year, I shall be reviewing all aspects of general administration costs in the Department, although these only account for a small proportion of total staff effort.