HC Deb 10 February 1982 vol 17 cc386-7W
Mr. Hordern

asked 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. Hayhoe

The following table shows the staff in post in the information officer group by Department at 1 April each year since 1977:

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.