§ Mr. John Pageasked the Minister for the Civil Service what policy is being adopted in London for contract cleaning of Government offices; how many directly employed cleaners have been declared redundant during each of the last three years; and how many contract cleaning employees are now doing the work previously undertaken by the directly employed cleaners.
§ Mrs. HartNew arrangements regarding the cleaning of Government offices generally are at present being negotiated on the National Whitley Council; and I will be ready to give the details when the negotiations are complete. The reductions in the number of cleaners in each of the past three years (in terms of full-time equivalents) were: 618 in 1966–67; 127 in 1967–68 and 1,363 in 1968–69. No information is available regarding the number of employees used by cleaning contractors on work previously undertaken by Departments' directly employed staff.