§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the current staffing establishment of the Directorate-General of Design Services; and whether he will break this figure down into Civil Service grades, indicating also the number of persons trained in relevant professional disciplines.
§ Mr. FreesonOn 1st July, the staff in post were:
Under Secretaries 4 Directors B 9 Superintending Grades 27 Professional and Technology Group: Principal P & TO's 117 Other P & T Grades 306 Science Group: Principal Scientific Officers 3 Other Science Grades 13 Administration Group: Senior Principals/Principals 1 Executive/Clerical Grades 144 Secretarial and Miscellaneous Grades 33 Total 657 There are 275 staff with relevant professional qualifications of whom 49 are architects or landscape architects, 74 civil engineers, 65 mechanical and electrical 27W engineers, 64 quantity surveyors, 18 building surveyors and five estates and land surveyors. A further 204 staff have scientific or other technological qualifications.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is now in a position to quantify in numerical terms the proportion of design work on behalf of the PSA which the Director-General of Design Services is intended to carry out in the present financial year; and whether he will list the schemes, in addition to the Teesside headquarters building, which are to be designed by the Director-General over the next 12 months.
§ Mr. FreesonA programme of projects is being built by the Design Office of the Director-General of Design Services that will fulfil the objective of its undertaking a significant representative sample of the PSA's work. Currently the value of projects to be designed over the next 12 months represents about 10 per cent. of the total work in planning in the PSA. In addition to the PSA Teesside headquarters, these are:
- Harrogate Single Soldiers' Accommodation,
- Catterick Resettlement Centre.
- Portland Laboratory/Office Block.
- Portland Physical and Recreational Training Centre.
- Lympstone Medical/Dental Centre and Church.
- Woking Married Soldiers' Quarters.
- Portsmouth Command Telephone Exchange.
- Birkenhead Offices.
- Oldham Offices.
- Office Improvement Programme.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the agreed staffing establishment of the new design office of the Director-General of Design Services; how many staff have so far been appointed; how many of them are architects; and how many of them have been recruited from outside the PSA or his Department.
§ Mr. FreesonThe framework of the multi-disciplinary Design Office has been set up and the establishment is being developed to enable it to handle the increasing load of allocated projects in an efficient way. On this basis, it is expected that the establishment will reach about 100 posts in the autumn of 1977. Nine-28W teen staff, including those in key professional posts, have so far been appointed, of whom six are architects. No professional staff have yet been recruited from outside the PSA.