HC Deb 11 March 1919 vol 113 cc1115-6W
Mr. ROSE

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions if he can make a statement detailing the number of part and full-time officials and employés of his Department, the amount expended for salaries, fees, expenses, office rents, and upkeep for the entire establishment, including branch and provincial offices as well as for headquarters staffs; and whether any measures are being taken, or are in contemplation, for drastically reducing the staffs and expenses of the Department?

Mr. HOPE

The number of officials and employés in headquarters and local area offices of the Ministry, who are engaged on part-time duties, is 106, and the number on full-time duties is 17,925. The amounts expended for salaries, fees and expenses for both branch and provisional offices, as well as for headquarter staffs, is as follows:

£
For year ending 31st March, 1916 312,202
For year ending 31st March, 1917 1,177,429
For year ending 31st March, 1918 2,895,970
For period 1st April, 1918, to 26th February, 1919 (11 months) 4,145,032

These figures do not include office rents or the cost of maintaining heating and lighting buildings, such charges being paid by His Majesty's Office of Works.

The increased expenditure for the year 1918–19 is largely accounted for by considerable expansion of the Aircraft Production Department during that period, and by the cost of various missions sent by the Ministry of Munitions to the United States of America.

Since the date of the Armistice the number of staff in every Department has been under constant revision, with a view to reduction to the lowest point consistent with the proper performance of work that still continues. In order to secure that the reduction may proceed as rapidly as possible, a committee consisting of four business men was appointed on the 30th January last to consider and advise the Minister as to the steps that can best be taken for that purpose. The reduction already effected in the staffs of headquarters and local offices is 9,178 persons, including 2,541 transferred to the Resettlement and Demobilisation Department of the Ministry of Labour.