§ Mr. Farrasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will run down the Government Economic Service, in view of its cost to the taxpayer and the advances made in computer forecasting.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe functions of those members of the Government Economic Service who are employed in the Treasury, and the numbers required to perform those functions, were examined in detail during the recent management review of the Department, and I am satisfied that the present complement is justified. Computerised economic forecasting models can be developed and used only by qualified staff, and the increased sophistication of these models is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of Treasury economists over the past 10 years. Economic forecasting is, of course, only one part, though an important one, of the work of Treasury economists.
§ Mr. Farrasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the cost of manning the Government Economic Service
656WBudget Report. No forecasts are published of the tax yields gross of repayments.
in each of the 12 years since its inception.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisI have been asked to reply.
As I explained in my reply to the hon. Member for Croydon, North-West (Mr. Robert Taylor) on 1st December 1975—[Vol. 901, Col. 352.]—the professional group known as the Government Economic Service is distributed between some 20 Departments. The costs of the group are therefore subsumed in the overall costs of the Departments concerned.