HC Deb 20 March 1995 vol 257 c79W
Mr. Malcolm Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the total number of civil servants employed by(a) his Department, (b) the agencies under his Department's responsibility and (c) public and other bodies under his Department's responsibility, for each year since 1979, divided into (i) full-time equivalents, (ii) overtime, (iii) casuals and (iv) other; and whether he will also provide for each year his estimates of (A) civil service job reductions due to privatisations, (B) civil service job reductions due to contracting out, (C) civil service job reductions resulting from other transfer of responsibilities, (D) the total of all other staff undertaking work for his Department or its agencies without being categorised as civil servants, including external consultants, researchers, agency secretarial staff and staff substitution and (E) total manpower expenditures, in 1994 prices. [14763]

Mr. Freeman

The civil service covers the permanent staff of central Government Departments and next steps agencies. The staff of other bodies are outside the civil service.

The annual publication "Civil Service Statistics" gives details of the number of civil servants employed by my Department and its agencies, including full-time equivalent staff and casuals, from 1993 onwards, and of staff leaving the civil service.

"Public Bodies", published annually since 1982, contains staffing information for those bodies not covered by "Civil Service Statistics".

Details of operating costs and the civil service pay bill for my Department for the years 1989–90 to 1997–98 are contained in table 5 of my Department's annual report (Cm 2801), and table 4 gives details of overtime.

"United Kingdom Defence Statistics" which is published annually contains more detailed information regarding recruitment and job reductions due to contractorisation and privatisation.

Copies of all these publications are available in the Library of the House.

The remaining information sought could be provided only at disproportionate cost.