§ Mr. Durantasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is satisfied with the current rate of reduction in the number of local government employees.
§ Mr. HeseltineThe latest return of the joint manpower watch, published today—copies of which are available in the library—shows that in the year to March 1981 there was a reduction of some 41,000—minus 2 per cent.—fulltime equivalent employees in local authorities in England and Wales. In the three months from December 1980 to March 1981 there was a reduction, on a seasonally adjusted basis, of some 6,000—minus 0.3 per cent.—fulltime equivalents. The figures indicate that the rate of reduction is not fast enough to meet the Government's expenditure targets. Clearly authorities will have to look much more critically at their manning levels when undertaking the revision of budgets which I have requested.