§ Mr. Hordernasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many information officers were attached to each Department in each of the last five years; and what was the cost of their wages and salaries in each year.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe following table shows the staff in post in the information officer group by Department at 1 April each year since 1977: 387W
Department Staff in Post* 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 11 11 12 12 13 Defence 168 151 144 148 149 Education and Science 19 18 18 18 17 Employment Group† 70 93 89 86 80 Energy 22 27 23 25 22 Environment/PSA 67 57 61 58 51 Health and Social Security 20 19 20 18 19 Home Office 25 24 22 25 24 Central Office of Information 558 503 521 521 492 Trade and Industry 180 171 181 170 165 Transport 20 19 16 16 16 Welsh Office 22 20 23 23 21 Scottish Office 24 23 25 24 20 Population Censuses and Surveys‡ 134 129 57 3 3 Other Departments 89 81 80 75 75 Total 1,429 1,346 1,292 1,222 1,167 Notes
* Full-time equivalents; part-timers counted as half units.
† Includes Department of Employment; Manpower Services Commission, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service; Health and Safety Commission/Executive.
‡The information officer group in OPCS was restructured on 1.12.1978.
The table below shows the costs of information officer grades' basic salaries in each of the years from 1977 to 1981:
£'000 1977 7,851 1978 8,339 1979 9,368 1980 11,463 1981 11,912 Costs are based on average basic pay of staff on incremental points and excludes London weighting, overtime and allowances.