§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will now give an actual total figure for United Kingdom public sector employment in place of the provisional figure in Economic Trends, November 1980, page 104, together with estimates for 1981 and future years.
Mr. BrittonThe estimate—thousands at midyear—of United Kingdom public sector employment for 1980 and the revised estimates for 1978 and 1979 are as follows:
1978 7,365 1979 7,444 1980 7,390 These figures will be the subject of an article in the December edition of Economic Trends which will include a mid-year 1981 estimate of general Government employment.
The Government are firmly committed to reducing employment in the public services over the next few years. We have announced a target reduction of just over 100,000 civil servants between April 1979 and April 1984 to a level of 630,000. We are on course for that target having shed over 50,000 by October of this year.