§ Lord McCARTHYasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why no information is available on the total cost of agency staff employed in the Civil Service before 1976 and whether this means:
- (a) that no records were kept concerning the numbers involved or the total cost and
- (b) that it is impossible to compute the real payroll cost of the Civil Service in any year before 1975.
§ Lord SHEPHERDIncreased information about the make-up of general administrative expenditure has become available to us as a result of improvements in our information system brought into effect in the last two years. Among the data now available to us is information about the cost of agency staff, but this particular information cannot be isolated for financial years prior to 1975–76. Any calculations of the payroll costs prior to 1975–76 therefore cannot cover this item.
House adjourned for the Easter Recess at twenty-two minutes past four o'clock.