§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will provide figures for the reduction in numbers of posts as a result of contracting out since 1979 in his Department and agencies for which he has responsibility.
§ Mr. CurryIn considering the effect on staff numbers a distinction has to be made between contracting out work previously carried out in-house and the contracting out of new work for which in-house staff would otherwise have had to be employed. Moreover, changes in workload in other areas may mean that staff from a contracted-out area are redeployed elsewhere without any overall reduction in numbers.
Since 1979 it is estimated that some 240 posts have been lost as a direct result of contracting out, but that potential increases of several hundred staff have also been avoided.