Departmental Staff

HC Deb 08 March 1976 vol 907 cc53-4W

Mr. Evelyn King

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many of his six most senior civil servants have resided in Ulster for more than 18 months;

(2) from what Departments his six most senior civil servants resident in Ulster are drawn;

(3) how many of his six most senior civil servants are drawn from the Northern Ireland Civil Service;

(4) if he will ensure in the future that Civil Service advice given to him with regard to government of Ulster does not derive wholly from civil servants of English nationality and of temporary residence in Northern Ireland.

Mr. Merlyn Rees

I am equally responsible for the Northern Ireland Office and for the eight Northern Ireland Departments which, together, administer Northern Ireland. These Departments employ approximately 230 United Kingdom civil servants and 23,000 non-industrial Northern Ireland civil servants of whom some 2,700 are in the Northern Ireland Office. I receive advice from 15 officers above the rank of Under-Secretary whom I see frequently; 12 are Northern Ireland civil servants. One United Kingdom civil servant has been resident in Northern Ireland for 15 months, and the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Northern Ireland Office has, over the last three years, spent substantially more than half his time in Northern Ireland.

Mr. Cormack

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many civil servants were employed within his Department on 31st December 1975; how many of these worked in London and how many in the provinces; what was the total annual cost of employing them in 1975; and how this compared with the annual wages and salaries bill for 1974.

Mr. Merlyn Rees

There were 231 United Kingdom civil servants employed in the Northern Ireland Office on 31st December 1975, of whom 151 were stationed in London and 80 were stationed in Belfast. The estimated cost of employing these civil servants in the financial year 1975–76 is £1,222,000. The total wages and salaries bill for the Northern Ireland Office in the financial year 1974–75 was £829,000.