§ Lord Harris of Greenwichasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total uniformed strength of HM Customs and Excise in every quarter since 1st January 1979 and the size of the plain-clothes investigation branch in the same period.
§ Lord Young of GraffhamI regret that figures for the uniformed strength of HM Customs and Excise for each Quarter since 1st January 1979 are not available, but at 1st April for each year since 1979 they were as follows:
1979 4,665 1980 4,382 1981 4,162 1982 3,959 1983 3,746 1984 3,497 1985 3,453 1986 3,600 (estimated) The figures since 1984 include the loss of messengers and Revenue assistants employed on traditional excise work and on some customs work where their posts have been upgraded.
The strength of the Investigation Division of HM Customs and Excise for each quarter since 1st January 1979 was as follows:
1st January 1st April 1st July 1st October 1979 430 424 429 429 1980 423 427 443 437 1981 454 467 514 529 1982 535 556 555 538 1983 569 606 592 580 1984 593 590 587 582 1985 594 591 599 598½ 1986 645 650 (estimated)