§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will give the number of offical journeys civil servants of his Department made in each quarter of 1976 and the first three quarters of 1977, by each quarter, between the United Kingdom and other parts of the EEC, on matters consequent on the United Kingdom's membership of the EEC; and what has been the total cost of all these journeys in 1976 and in 1977 so far, respectively.
§ Dr. GilbertInternational defence co-operation is not the concern of the EEC.
Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Defence why the numbers of civilian staff of his Department increased by some 18,000 between 1971 and 1975, as revealed by the Minutes of Evidence of the Expenditure Committee on the Civil Service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MulleyThis apparent increase originates from a comparison of actual strengths of United Kingdom non-industrial staff at 1st April 1971 and 1st April 1975. This is a misleading comparison. During this period there were changes of responsibility and organisation affecting the Ministry of Defence as a result of which a net total of some 19,000 United Kingdom non-industrial staff was added. The most notable example was the transfer to the Ministry of Defence of staff from the former Ministry of 473W Aviation Supply on the inception of the Procurement Executive.
Allowing for these changes in responsibility and organisation, the apparent increase in actual strengths in reality becomes a decrease of about 800 on a strictly comparable basis. A simple comparison of actual strengths should not therefore be assumed as a meaningful indication of trends in staffing levels. In fact the Ministry of Defence is well on the way to achieving the reduction of 40,000 staff by 1st April 1979 as announced in the 1975 and 1976 Statements on the Defence Estimates.