§ Mrs. Lena Jegerasked the Minister for the Civil Service what report he has received on the training of officials responsible for arranging office cleaning contracts and supervising their enforcement.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerI have received the report to which I referred in my reply to the hon. Member on 9th August 1972 which, among many recommendations, included suggestions for the training of executive staff responsible for186W cleaning arrangements in Government offices. Discussion of the report with the staff side of the National Whitley Council will start shortly but the recommendations on training have already been accepted and the first courses are expected to be held in the summer.
§ Mrs. Lena Jegerasked the Minister for the Civil Service to what extent the cleaning of Government offices is carried out by contract firms and what proportion is cleaned by direct labour; and what is the average payment by Her Majesty's Government per worker per hour in the case of direct labour.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerStatistics of the areas in Government offices cleaned by direct labour and by contract are not regularly collected by my Department but, as I told the hon. Member on 20th April 1972, in October 1970 about two-thirds of the total area was cleaned by contract. Civil Service office cleaners are paid at national hourly rates of 42.1p for men and 37.9p for women, to which London weighting is added.