§ Mr. Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek to ascertain and publish the total number of staff employed by the county council and all the authorities within Cheshire before reorganisation and the total following reorganisation.
§ Mr. OakesThere are obvious difficulties in comparing the pre- and post-reorganisation position where boundaries have been changed, as in the case of Cheshire, but I suggest that the hon. Member might approach the new authorities there for the information he is seeking.
A general inquiry into staffing levels in local government, before and after reorganisation, was initiated earlier this year by the Local Authorities Conditions of Service Advisory Board and was referred to by the right hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Page), the then Minister for Local Government and Development, when speaking in the House on 23rd January 1974.—[Vol. 867, c. 1700.] Some preliminary information has already been made public from that inquiry.