§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will bring up to date his predecessor's answer to the hon. Member for Melton of 3 March 1982 regarding the size and cost of his Department, Official Report, c. 159.
§ Mr. KingOn 1 April 1983, following a transfer of district audit staff to the Audit Commission on that date, the total number of non-industrial staff in post in the 293W Department of the Environment including the Property Services Agency was 36,444. This is a reduction of 27.2 per cent. since the general election.
The net cost to public funds of running the Department during the financial year 1982–83 is estimated to have been £468.9 million made up as follows:
£ million Wages and salaries 201.0 General administrative expenses 99.4 Accommodation and HMSO 59.6 Pay, etc. of PSA industrials 108.9 468.9 As in previous answers to my hon. Friend, the staff numbers exclude casual and seasonally employed staff and PSA staff locally engaged overseas, though the costs of these are included in the costs table. Both staff numbers and costs exclude the Ordnance Survey.