§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the annual budget for his departmental deregulation unit; how many staff it employs; and of these how many(a) are career civil servants and of what grades, (b) have been seconded from business, and (c) have experience of the private sector. [30064]
§ Mr. HoramThe members of staff working centrally in the Department on deregulation issues are a grade 5, a senior executive officer, an executive officer and an administrative officer, a total of 2.5 whole-time equivalents. All are career civil servants. In addition, there is a network of officials around the Department, responsible for co-ordinating deregulation activities in their area of work—where appropriate in close consultation with people from the private sector. The budgeted expenditure for the unit in 1996–97 is £70,000.