§ 105. Mr. Barnesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that some Government Departments are Interpreting paragraph 53 of Command Paper No. 3515 to mean that, if they replace their own office cleaners by contractual cleaning they are in a position 313W to recruit a corresponding number of additional civil servants to perform other duties; whether this is in accordance with Government policy in view of the extra expenditure involved; and if he will make a statement to clarify the position.
§ Mr. Diamond:The policy is that there is to be no further net increases in the number of civil servants as a whole in 1968– 69 despite an expected increase in work load overall. Within this overall stability there will naturally be variations between Departments. The continuance of the general policy of transfer to contract cleaning is designed to reduce the cost of office services, although it will also lead to a reduction in the numbers employed. The fact that a Department has gone over to contract cleaning gives it no automatic right to any compensating increase in other staff.