§ Mr. Linsteadasked the President of the Board of Trade what number of staff is engaged on the compilation of the Census of Production and the Census of Distribution; and what is the annual cost of these two undertakings.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe number of staff employed on census work necessarily varies from year to year according to the scope of the censuses in hand. At the present time 503 staff are employed on work in connection with the Census of Production (215 on the 1951 census and the remainder on the preparation of reports on censuses for other years) and 508 on the Census of Distribution. As was explained in the reply given on 8th May to my hon. Friend the Member for Darwen (Mr. Fletcher-Cooke), a substantial reduction of staff will take place during the rest of the financial year.
Work on the Census of Production costs at present approximately £215,000 a year. The total cost of the Census of Distribution will have amounted to about £710,000, which will have been spread over three and a half years.