HC Deb 11 March 1986 vol 93 cc456-7W
Mr. Ralph Howell

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give the figures for the years 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984, respectively (a) for the cost of the Civil Service and (b) the average cost for each civil servant; and if he will break down the average cost for each civil servant into pay, national insurance, superannuation, and other costs, such as office space, heating, lighting, car allowance, travel allowance, telephone, and so on.

Mr. MacGregor

As part of the introduction of the new running costs control system reported in the 1986 public expenditure White Paper (Cmnd. 9702), there has been a reappraisal of the allocation of costs between the administrative and opertional areas and some changes have been made. The reappraisal has been reflected in the running costs figures for all years in Cmnd. 9702. The adjustments were not, however, made to the level of detail requested by my hon. Friend, and I am not, therefore, able to provide the precise information requested.

Although there was a significant reduction in manpower numbers during the last five years, not all of the related costs (such as accommodation) can be expected to reduce at the same rate. The cost per head figures should be viewed in that light. However, the following figures are based on those published in Cmnd. 9702.

1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85
Staff totals (average staff in post):
Civil Service (excluding Trading Funds) 665,300 648,400 630,600 611,100 596,000
Armed Forces† 58,000 58,000 58,000 58,000 58,000
Northern Ireland Civil Service 28,600 27,200 26,200 25,500 25,000
£ £ £ £ £
Costs per head (cash terms) 10,585 12,261 13,709 16,258 17,652
* Departmental running costs comprise pay costs, personnel overheads, accommodation costs, office services and other services. They do not include notional accruing pensions liability, pensions in payment or capital expenditure.
† Running costs coverage for 1986–87 has been revised to include the pay of armed forces personnel only where they are engaged in headquarters and support activities; 58,000 for 1986–87 (Cmnd. 9702). Figures for these activities are not available for the period covered by this table, so the 1986–87 figures of 58,000 has been used throughout.