§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the different roles of the Central Office of Information, the Scottish Information Office and the public relations officers of his own Department in informing the public about Scotland.
§ Mr. MillanThe Scottish Information Office carries the sole responsibility for all Press and publicity requirements of the Scottish Office Departments, and provides similar services in Scotland, on request, to United Kingdom Departments. 651W In addition, the Scottish Information Office undertakes media arrangements for all Royal and State visits to Scotland, the organisation and escorting of tours by Government-sponsored visitors, and for projecting all aspects of Scottish life through the overseas news, photographic, television and radio services of the Central Office of Information.
Since 1974 the role of the Central Office of Information in Scotland has been confined to making available to the Scottish Information Office specialist services in film-making and exhibition design.
I have no public relations officers by that title. The professional staff of the Scottish Information Office are members
April 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 Professional Information Officers 15 16 16 15 14 13 13 19 23 29 24 Executive and Clerical Support Staff 13 13 13 13 15 17 17 14 17 15 17 Total 28 29 29 28 29 30 30 33 40 44 41
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Scotland who is the head of the Scottish Information Office; and what is his annual salary.
§ Mr. MillanThe Director of the Scottish Information Office is Mr. C. Mac-Gregor, MBE. As a Chief Information Officer (A) he is paid on a salary scale of £8,650 to £11,000 a year.
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what has been the cost of producing all documents or other information services of any sort whatsoever produced by the Scottish Information Office in the last 12 months for which figures are available, including revised or reissued documents.
§ Mr. MillanThe total publicity budget for the Scottish Information Office in the financial year 1st April 1976 to 31st March 1977 was £450,000. Actual expenditure is expected to be about 80 per cent. of this figure, a saving of £90,000. Within the total expenditure the cost of producing leaflets, booklets, posters and other publications, excluding Press notices, in the same period was about £76,000.
652Wof the Government's Information Officer Class.
§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many persons are employed in the Scotish Information Office; how many in London and how many in Scotland; and what have been the numbers employed in each year of the Scottish Information Office existence.
§ Mr. MillanRecords for all these years are not preserved in the form requested.
The total number of persons employed in the Scottish Information Office over each of the last 10 years is shown in the following table. During that period the average number employed in London was three.