§ Lord HARRIS of GREENWICHasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many civil servants of executive officer rank and upwards were employed in the Ministry of Defence on 1st April 1980; and how many were employed in the three service departments in 1937, 1944 and 1947 respectively.
1125WA
§ Lord STRATHCONA and MOUNT ROYALFigures for 1937 are not available and totals for 1944 and 1947 in grades equivalent to executive officer and above could only be extracted at disproportionate cost; even then the quality of the result is likely to be unreliable. Central records have, however, been maintained since the unified MOD was set up in 1964, and figures at that d ate and at 1st January 1980 are shown below. However, a simple straightforward comparison of these figures is misleading because of changes in departmental organisation affecting the MOD, in grading structures, in counting conventions and as a result of measures of civilianisation. As one example, the inception of the Procurement Executive in 1971 added 17,000 non-industrial staff to MOD numbers.
Strength at 1st April 1964 Executive Officer and upwards and upwards Strength at 1st January 1980 Executive Officer 8,100 11,200