§ Mr. Robert HicksTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people were employed by his Department in the chief executive dockyard section(a) prior to the closure of Portsmouth and Chatham royal dockyards and (b) prior to the introduction of commercial management at Devonport and Rosyth; and how many people are now employed in the directorate general for ships repair.
§ Mr. Kenneth CarlisleChief Executive Dockyards (CED) HQ staff (excluding Dockyard stall) were 344 in April 1982 prior to the closure of Chatham Dockyard and the conversion of Portsmouth Dockyard to the Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation which were completed in 1984. In April 1985, when commercial management of the Dockyards was proposed, there were 255 CED HQ staff; building up to 439 Directorate General Ship Refitting and transitional CED HQ staff in April 1987 when commercial management was introduced. There are currently 346 HQ staff in DGSR excluding the104W Superintendent Ships organisation in the dockyards. It should be noted, however, that DGSR now includes staff performing contracting, accounting, estimating and pricing functions which were not part of CED's responsibility.