HC Deb 10 January 1989 vol 144 c471W
Mr. Allen

To ask the Lord President of the Council how many hon. Members employ(a) none, (b) one, (c) two, (d) three, (e) four and (f) more than four employees who are paid from the secretarial and office allowance.

Mr. Wakeham

As at 31 December 1988, the numbers of staff directly employed by Members and paid out of the office costs allowance are as follows:

Number
(a) none 25
(b) one 196
(c) two 265
(d) three 121
(e) four 29
(f) more than four 12

Mr. Allen

To ask the Lord President of the Council how many of the 1,267 employees paid from the office costs allowances are married or otherwise related to their employer.

Mr. Wakeham

No record is held of the relationship between Members and their employees and therefore I am unable to give the hon. Member the information requested.

Mr. Brandon-Bravo

To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will estimate the cost to public funds in a full year of enabling each hon. and right hon. Member to call upon the services of(a) one full-time secretary and one assistant accommodated in London and (b) one full-time secretary and one assistant accommodated in each constituency, using average rental and other overhead costs; and what is the current annual cost to public funds of the office allowances to hon. and right hon. Members.

Mr. Wakeham

The office costs allowance, currently £22,588, is available to right hon. and hon. Members to enable them to meet the cost of making arrangements which suit their own individual requirements. Consequently, the level of salaries paid by individual right hon. and hon. Members to their employees varies widely, reflecting the differences in working hours, duties and regional variations in pay. Additionally, there is no common pattern of use of information technology, which, together with the differences in local arrangements for constituency offices, leads to greater variations in costs.

In the circumstances, no meaningful estimate of the cost of the services listed can be given.

The total of the office costs allowance payable from the House of Commons Vote in 1988–89 is estimated at £14,683,000.

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