§ Mr. Litterickasked the Minister for the Civil Service how many Press officers are currently on the establishment of each of the public Departments of State; and how many were employed in June 1974.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisThe table below shows by department the number of staff in post in the information officer group on 1st April 1974 and 1st January270W 1978, the nearest dates for which figures are readily available. Information officers are engaged on a variety of duties including general government publicity, Press office work, recruitment advertising, exhibitions, internal information and making films. It is not possible to identify those information officers performing particular duties without disproportionate cost.
Department 1st April 1974 1st January 1978 Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 10 12 Civil Service Department 19 18 Defence 172 160 Education and Science 19 19 Employment Group 34 81 Energy* — 20 Environment (including PSA) 90 67 Health and Social Security 17 18 Home Office 20 25 Information, Central Office of 536 508 National Savings 10 12 Overseas Development 9 11 Population, Censuses and Surveys 132 124 Trade, Industry and Prices and Consumer Protection 172 177 Transport† — 13 Treasury 14 11 Welsh Office 15 21 Scottish Office 19 23 Other Departments 19 30 1,307 1,350 Part-time staff counted as half-units. * For 1974 the figures for the Department of Energy are included in those for the Department of Trade and Industry Group. † For 1974 the figures for the Department of Transport are included in those for the Department of the Environment.