§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what has been the reduction in the range of departmental responsibilities since 1979; and what staff savings have been made in each Department of State at each level from assistant secretary upwards, including redundancies announced but not yet implemented, together with the reduction in the numbers of Ministers. [4337]
§ Mr. FreemanDepartmental responsibilities are a matter of public record, set out in the relevant edition of the "List of Ministerial Responsibilities" and elsewhere.
Changes between 1 April 1979 and 1 April 1995 in the number of staff at each of grade levels 1 to 5 are shown in the table. Organisational and other changes between those dates limit comparability, but some approximate groupings of Departments and agencies have been made. Numbers of planned reductions by grade and method of release are not centrally available.
There were 82 Ministers, excluding Law Officers and Whips, in January 1979; there are 84 at present.
491W
Grade levels 1 to 5 change between 1 April 1979 and 1 April 1995 Departments and their agencies Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Office of Population Censuses and Surveys — — — -1 -2 Home Office and HM Prison Service — -1 — -2 +37 Lord Chanceller's Department — -2 -9 +7 +9 HM Land Registry — +1 +1 — +5 Public Record Office — — — — +2 OFLOT2 — — — — +2 Northern Ireland Office — — — +2 -3 Scotland Scottish Office — -2 -8 +4 -18 Scottish Court Service — — — +1 -1 General Register Office-Scotland — — — — -1 Registers of Scotland — — — +1 +1 Scottish Record Office — — — — — Trade and Industry and Transport1 -4 -12 -16 +9 -4 ACAS — — — +1 -3 Office of Electircity Regulation2 — — +1 — +6 Office of Gas Supply2 — — — +1 +2 OPRAF2 — — +1 — +6 Office of the Rail Regulator2 — — — +1 +4 Wales Welsh Office — — -1 +5 -6 Other Civil Departments Civil Service Pay Research Unit3 — — — — -1 Charity Commission — — -1 +3 — Crown Estate Office — — -1 — -1 Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal — — +2 +5 +22 Export Credit Guarantee Department — — -2 — — Intervention Board — — +1 — +2 Legal Secretariat — +1 — +1 +4 Lord Advocate's Department — — +3 — +1 Office of Fair Trading — — -2 — +1 Privy Council Office — — — — — Serious Fraud Ofice2 — +1 +1 +1 +8 Treasury Solicitor — — — +3 — All Departments Total numbers 1979 41 177 594 242 2,547 Total numbers 1995 34 119 448 258 2,411 Change -7 -58 -146 +16 -136 Notes:
1 Departments involved in major functional changes.
2 Departments in 1995 with no equivalent in 1979.
3 Departments in 1979 with no equivalent in 1995.