§ Mr. David Howellasked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will give the reductions in the numbers of non-industrial civil servants resulting from the transfer from direct to contract cleaning for each of the last 10 years.
§ Mrs. HartThe reductions in the number of cleaners (in terms of full-time360W equivalents) in each of the past seven years were:
1962–63 295 1963–64 215 1964–65 35 1965–66 242 1966–67 618 1967–68 127 1968–69 1,363 I regret that the information in respect of the earlier years is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Whilst these reductions in the numbers of directly employed cleaners will have been largely attributable to transfers to contract cleaning, there will have been a number of other contributing factors.