§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Prime Minister, following her reply to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North, 16 March, Official Report, column 282, if she will require that figures are collected centrally of all jobs that are transferred from the Civil Service, local authorities, water authorities, the National Health Service, nationalised industries and any other parts of the public sector to the private sector, by the relevant Secretaries of State.
§ The Prime MinisterFor the Civil Service the figures are already collected centrally. For the rest it is for each Secretary of State to decide whether the benefits of collecting information of this kind outweigh the costs. In so far as we have appropriate figures, these have already been given to my hon. Friend in a reply on 16 January at column 5.