§ Lord Boyd-Carpenterasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans the Government have for reducing the size of the Civil Service.
§ Lord SoamesMy right honourable friend the Prime Minister announced on 13th May that the Government intended to reduce the size of the Civil Service to about 630,000 over the next four years. Unforeseen demands are bound to arise over the years ahead, and we are therefore allowing for a contingency margin of 15,000. The Government have now settled manpower targets for individual departments for 1st April 1984. These figures, and those of the staff in post on 1st April 1979 and 1st October 1980, are given below.
322WAEach departmental Minister has his general plans which will be developed in detail over the period as circumstances evolve.
Department Staff in post at 1st April 1979 Staff in post at 1st October 1980 Target Staff in post at 1st April 1984 (Rounded to nearest 100) MAFF 13,956 13,406 11,600 Chancellor of the Exchequer's Departments 126,905 115,938 102,600 Defence 247,660 235,226 200,000 Education and Science 2,647 2,571 2,200 Employment Group 53,625 50,912 49,000 Energy 1,267 1,222 1,100 Environment and Ordnance Survey 56,039 49,360 41,400 FCO/ODA 12,078 11,605 11,100 Health and Social Security 98,369 97,917 87,700 Home Office 33,490 34,924 34,900 Industry 9,514 9,120 7,300 Lord Chancellor's Departments 16,518 16,370 16,000 Lord President's Departments 12,957 12,289 9,100 Scottish Office 11,119 10,911 10,000 Trade, Office of Fair Trading and Export Credits Guarantee Department 9,940 9,458 8,400 Transport 13,908 13,291 10,700 Welsh Office 2,607 2,388 2,200 Other Departments 9,723 10,167 9,700 Contingency margin — — 15,000 TOTALS (rounded) 732,300 697,100 630,000