Prime Minister's Office (Hansard, 1 April 1993)

§ The Prime Minister

It has not been the general practice to identify the cost of Ministers' offices378W separately in departmental reports. The cost and size of my office are freely available in the form of parliamentary answers. The information for each year since 1979–80 is as follows:

	Staffs¹	Cost^{2 3}
		(£'000)
1979–80	68	1,409
1980–81	68	1,745
1981–82	70	2,415
1982–83	64	2,700
1983–84	66	3,026
1984–85	67	3,787
1985–86	66	4,406
1986–87	66	4,963
1987–88	67	5,418
1988–89	67	6,554
1989–90	68	7,669
1990–91	71	8,226
1991–92	73	8,664
1992–93	95	⁴9,136
¹ The staffing levels relate to the beginning of each financial year. For the years 1979 to 1989 the figures relate to the number of actual staff employed in No. 10. From 1990 onwards the figures are on the basis of staff in post (ie expressed in terms of full time equivalents). It should be noted that the increase in staff numbers from 1 April 1992 is due to the transfer of office service support grades, already working in No. 10, to the No. 10 complement from the Cabinet Office establishment officer's group.
² The monetary figures represent the cost of 10 Downing Street and Chequers borne on the Votes of the Cabinet Office (OPSS) and its predecessors. Over the period, the following changes have occurred to the basis of the costs:
in 1981–82 the Ministry of Defence introduced charges for the use of its aircraft;
in 1983–84 the then Property Services Agency introduced charges for buildings and services;
in 1984–85 charges were introduced for the Government Car Service and the Service Personnel at Chequers; and
in 1986–87 the cost of office services was included for the first time.
³ Costs are shown in the year in which the expenditure was made. Because of billing delays this is not always in financial year in which the goods or services were provided.
⁴ Estimate.