§ Mr. Stokesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list by Government Department the number of press officers employed; and what was their cost for the last year.
§ Mr. HayhoeThere are no grades or groups of staff in the Civil Service designated as "press officers". Press 121W office work in Government Departments is normally carried out by members of the information officer group. Information officers are engaged on a wide variety of duties including Government publicity, recruitment advertising and exhibitions as well as press office work. Those performing press office work could not be identified centrally without incurring disproportionate cost.
The following table shows the staff in post in the information officer group by Department at 1 January 1982.
Staff in Post at 1 January 1982* Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 17 Defence 146 Education and Science 13 Employment Group† 77 Energy 21 Environment/PSA 44 Health and Social Security 17 Home Office 25 Central Office of Information 469 Trade and Industry 157 Transport 18 Welsh Office 20 Scottish Office 19 Population Censuses and Surveys 45 Other Departments 74 TOTAL 1,162 * Full-time equivalents; part-timers counted as half units. Figures at 1 January 1982 are provisional. † Employment Group includes Department of Employment; Manpower Services Commission; Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service; Health and Safety Commission/Executive. Basic salary costs of information officer group staff in 1981 were £11.9 million. These costs are based on average basic pay of staff on incremental points, and exclude London weighting, overtime and allowances.