HC Deb 21 January 1988 vol 125 cc832-3W
Mr. Tony Lloyd

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many public service vehicle licences and how many heavy goods vehicle licences of the various classes have been in force over each of the last five calendar years; how many new public service vehicle and heavy goods vehicle licences have been issued, and how many withdrawn in each of those years; and how many of the licences in each category have been withdrawn for the reason of ill-health or incapacity of the licence-holder.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

The following information about heavy goods and public service vehicle driver licences is available in respect of all traffic areas:

Civil Service posts; if he will set out the number of such dispersed posts; and how many will be in the north-west, the north and Scotland.

Mr. Lawson

[holding answer 18 January 1988]: Since 1979 some 5,560 Civil Service posts have been dispersed from London under the Government's dispersal programme, including 1,930 posts to Scotland and some 1,210 to the north-west; no posts have been dispersed to the northern region. Further moves to Scotland of at least 125 posts are planned under this programme.

In addition, Departments have, under the Government's wider location policy, dispersed staff on their own initiative. Forty staff of the Data Protection Registrar were located at Wilmslow, Cheshire, in 1984; by the end of 1987–88, the Department of Health and Social Security will have created over 500 new jobs at its Newcastle central office and a net addition of around 350 posts at the family credit centre at North Fylde; plans have now been approved to move 60 Ministry of Defence posts to Cheadle Hulme in Cheshire; the Inland Revenue opened a new office in Cumbernauld in 1987 (32 posts) and will be dispersing later this year some London tax office and head office staff to Manchester (36 posts), to Stockport (17 posts) and to Glasgow (12 posts).

For the future, Departments will be encouraged to consider all suitable locations, including those for the north-west, the north and Scotland, on the basis mentioned in my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General's answer on 18 January, at columns 475–76, to the hon. Member for East Kilbride (Mr. Ingram). Any specific plans will be announced as and when they are prepared.