§ Mr. Freesonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will give details of the annual budget and staffing levels at the Land Resources Development Centre for each of the last five years; and if he will specify which areas of the centre's work, including specific posts, have been reduced as a result of expenditure cuts.
§ Mr. RaisonTotal staff numbers serving with LRDC on 1 April each year (vacancies excluded) were:
Number 1981 87.5 1982 78.5 1983 74.5 1984 62.5 1985 48.0 These figures include United Kingdom-based staff and those serving overseas (of whom there were 17 on 1 April 1985).
The LRDC budget comprises the salaries and so on of United Kingdom-based staff, salaries and so on of certain expanded home-based staff, general expenses including accommodation charges, and capital expenditure. Outturn figures for the past five years are:
Figure 1981–82 0.855 1982–83 0.891 1983–84 0.963 1984–85 1.021 1985–86 *0.971 * Estimate. The salaries of staff serving overseas on assignments for ODA's country technical cooperation programmes are charged to those programmes and do not appear in the LRDC budget.
Since 1 April 1981 a total of 35 professional staff have retired, resigned or been transferred without replacement. The specific areas of reduction and numbers of posts are: Water Resources Engineering (4), Agriculture/Agronomy (5), Livestock Management (2), Forestry (2), Soil Science (3), Socio-economics (1), Ecology (2), Information (1), Soil Conservation Training (1), Soil Chemistry (1), Statistics/Computer (2), Cartography (7). 4½ administrative posts have also been shed.