§ Mr. Kaufmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many civil servants are engaged in work on the grant-related expenditure areas for the 1983–84 rate support grant settlement compared with the same period a year previously; how much computer time has been used so far within his Department; and how much rented from outside in connection with this work; and what is the cost.
§ Mr. Heseltine:In the two divisions within my Department primarily responsible for grant distribution, there are currently 32 staff compared with 46 a year ago, most of the reduction being due to a reorganisation of computing staff. About 10 staff in these two divisions spend the majority of their time working on GREs and this position is unchanged from last year. No record is kept of the use of computer time as such, but up until the end of September, I estimate that £180,150 had been spent on producing GREs for the 1983–84 RSG settlement; all of this expenditure was with outside computer bureaux.