§ Mr. MacCormickasked the Minister for the Civil Service what has been the Government's contribution from all sources to London weighting for civil servants for each of the past five years.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisThe Government bear, on the Votes of the employing Departments, the total cost of the remuneration of civil servants, including their London weighting allowances. Actual expenditure on these allowances is not recorded separately, but my reply of 17th December 1976 to the hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr. Fowler) gave the most up-to-date estimate of total annual cost based on staff in post at the beginning of the year. Earlier comparable figures for industrial civil servants are not available but the comparably estimated total costs for non-industrial civil servants, including the non-industrial figure used in my previous reply, are:
£ million 1972 … … … … 22.4 1973 … … … … 22.8 1974 … … … … 45.9 1975 … … … … 54.4 1976 … … … … 60.8 The 1975 and 1976 figures reflect significant changes made in the qualifying boundaries in April 1974 which created or improved the entitlement of some 2,500 non-industrial civil servants.