§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many people are employed in her Department's Press Office; and how many were employed on 2 May 1997. [108402]
§ Clare ShortThe information for all years from 1996–97 is as follows:
Year Number of press officers Annual cost (£) 1996–97 6 195,000 1997–98 6 243,000 1998–99 4 240,000 1999–2000 3.3 100,000 2000–01 4.5 150,000 2001–02 4 148,000 2002–03 5 191,000 For 1996–97 to 1997–98 the figures are taken from the "Government Information and Communications Service" (HC 770) published by the Select Committee on Public Administration (29 July 1998) and include the Head and Deputy Head of Information Department who were not fully employed on press duties but whose costs cannot be disaggregated from the totals. Separate records have not been maintained by DFID for those years.
From 1999–2000 to 2002–03 the costs include annual salary and pension contributions.
518WThere are five people employed in the DFID press office. From the information available, as indicated above, there were six people employed on 2 May 1997.