§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give details of the total cost of press liaison and publicity carried out by his Department in each year since 1979; how many press and publicity officers were employed in each such year; and what has been the total cost of their remuneration.
§ Mr. Lang[holding answer 10 December 1993]: The following table shows (a) the running costs of The Scottish Office information directorate for each year from 1985–86 and (b) the number of information officer grades employed in each year since 1979:
Year £ million No. of Information Officer Grades Vacancies 1979–80 1— 22.0 3 1980–81 1— 24.0 — 1981–82 1— 20.0 1 1982–83 1— 22.0 — 1983–84 1— 20.0 — 1984–85 1— 20.0 — 1985–86 0.9 19.0 1 1986–87 1.0 20.0 2 1987–88 1.1 22.0 1 1988–89 1.2 23.0 1 1989–90 1.4 28.0 3 1990–91 1.7 31.5 — 1991–92 1.9 33.5 — 1992–93 1.9 29.5 2 1 The figures for running costs exclude expenditure on information campaigns. Directly comparable figures for years prior to the introduction of new Scottish Office budgetary arrangements in 1985–86 are not available. Nor is it possible to break down the running costs figures to differentiate between the remuneration of information officer grades and administrative staff within the Directorate.