§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many persons were employed by the Scottish Development Agency in, respectively, January 1977, January 1978, January 1979, and January of the current year; and if he will make a statement on any plans to take on further staff, as from the current month, regarding numbers, functions and extra cost.
§ Mr. YoungerAt vesting day the agency took over 472 staff from the organisations it subsumed—the Scottish Industrial Estates Corporation and the Small Industries Council for Rural Areas of Scotland. Agency staff numbers at the dates requested were as follows:
January 1977 530 January 1978 578 January 1979 679 January 1980 700 The approved staff complement of 750 is not expected to be exceeded in 1980–81, the estimates for which will be published in due course.