§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many press officers are employed by the Northern Ireland Office; how many are attached to the various Departments; what are their functions; how they are 36W recruited; and what are their salary scales.
§ Mr. Humphrey AtkinsAt 1 June 1980, there were five press officers employed by the Northern Ireland Office in London, 10 attached to the various Northern Ireland Department, and 10 employed in the Northern Ireland information service at Stormont Castle.
The grades involved and present salary scales are:—
£ 1 Director of information (Belfast) 17,600 1 Chief information officer (London) 14,250–17,000 1 Senior principal information officer (Belfast) 11,750–15,000 4 Principal information officers (London & Belfast) 10,600–14,000 11 Deputy principal information officers (Northern Ireland) 8,555–11,850 2 Senior information officers (London) 8,600–10,500 2 Information officers (Northern Ireland) 6,950–8,555 3 Assistant information officers or equivalent grades (London & Belfast) 3,775–6,745 Acting within the information service as a whole, their functions are to advise Ministers and Departments on presentational and information aspects of Government policies, actions and services; to achieve wide dissemination of information about them through the press and broadcasting media and by other means; to provide Ministers and Departments with an assessment of public opinion as reflected by the media; and, acting with and through the Central Office of Information and the Foreign Office, to contribute to the projection abroad of a balanced view of Northern Ireland. All have been appointed as a result of competitions organised by the Civil Service Commission.