HC Deb 16 November 1987 vol 122 c389W
Mr. Andrew Smith

To ask the Lord Privy Seal how many secretarial and research assistants in the Palace of Westminster are citizens of the United States of America.

Mr. Wakeham

One hundred and three.

Mr. Andrew Smith

To ask the Lord Privy Seal if he will give a breakdown, by party affiliation of employer, of the number, of the full or temporary(a) secretarial pass-holders and (b) research assistant pass-holders in the Palace of Westminster.

Mr. Wakeham

The numbers of Members' staffs broken down by party affiliation is as follows:

Party Number of Members Number of staff employed
Conservative 307 641
Labour 173 417
Liberal 17 63
Social Democrat 5 20
Plaid Cymru 2 4
Scottish Nationalist 1 1
Ulster Unionist 3 3
Democratic Unionist 2 2

I regret it has not been possible to subdivide these figures into secretarial and research assistant passholders without disproportionate cost.

Mr. Andrew Smith

To ask the Lord Privy Seal if he will give a breakdown of pass-holders in the Palace of Westminster who are citizens of(a) the United States of America and (b) of other foreign countries, broken down by party affiliation of employer where appropriate.

Mr. Wakeham

The latest available figures show that 126 Palace of Westminster photo-identity passholders are American nationals and 319 are from other foreign countries. These figures could only be subdivided by party affiliation of employer at disproportionate cost.