§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many private security firms are employed by his Department or bodies associated with his Department; how many personnel are employed, at which locations, on what responsibilities and duties, and at what annual cost; 374W what have been the comparable figures for each of the last three years; and what estimates he has made as to the likely figures for 1984.
§ Mr. LeeIt is Government policy to contract out services such as security guarding on non sensitive sites when this is cost effective and makes good management sense.
The Ministry of Defence has five contracts with private firms for the provision of custody services. In addition, commercial firms are employed in 18 instances to provide secure secure cash conveyance services for pay purposes. For reasons of security and commercial confidentiality I am unable to give the full details of location and cost, but the total expenditure in 1981–82 was £194,104, and in 1982–83, £197,523. The estimate for 1983–84 is £240,000. The figure for 1980–81 is not obtainable in the time available nor is it possible to give an estimate for 1984–85, but we anticipate that the figure will be broadly in line with those given above. About 25 per cent. of the cost is in respect of custodial services. The Department calculates that for the custody services the number of jobs involved would be some 24 full-time and two part-time jobs. It is not possible in the time available to put a number on those employed for cash conveyance services.