§ Mr. Lathamasked the Minister for the Civil Service whether she will set out in tabular form the number of staff in post for each Department on (a) 1 March 1979, (b) 1 March 1980 and (c) 1 March 1981, divided in each case into industrial and non-industrial grades; and if he will briefly indicate the legislative or policy reasons which caused variations in manpower between those dates, wherever applicable.
§ Mr. HayhoeInformation in this form is collected quarterly on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, and is published in the summary quarterly staff return, copies of which are available in the Library. I am sending the relevant summaries to my hon. Friend. Information about the reasons for the variations in manpower between the dates in question is not held centrally, but I refer my hon. Friend to the statements made by my predecessor on 22 May 1979 and 6 December 1979, and by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 13 May 1980 about reductions in Civil Service manpower, which will have affected staff numbers in the period mentioned.