Civil Servants (Hansard, 19 October 1998)

§ Mr. Battle

Systematic and reliable data in the form requested are not available for the Department as a whole.

However, there are currently 27 staff within the Department's Fast Stream grades who have science degrees, of whom 23 have held positions where this expertise is likely to have been relevant to the content of the post.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has asked the Chief Executives of the Agencies of the Department to reply to my hon. Friend direct.

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Letter from Peter Joyce to Dr. Ian Gibson, dated 19 October 1998: The President of the Board of Trade has asked me to reply to your question about the number of staff in the Insolvency Service who (a) have a degree in science and (b) have held a position using that expertise. I regret that the information held centrally by the Service on its staff is not maintained in a form which would provide details of those who have a science degree except at disproportionate cost.

Letter from David Hendon to Dr. Ian Gibson, dated 16 July 1998: You asked the President of the Board of Trade, how many civil servants in her Department (a) have a degree in science and (b) have held a position using that expertise. I have been asked to answer that question in respect of the Radiocommunications Agency. I am afraid that the Agency does not have available comprehensive data that would allow me to identify which of its staff have science degrees. I can inform you, however, that the Agency has 45 engineering staff with engineering degrees of various types. In addition, there is a small number of generalist administrators with a science or engineering degree who may find their specialist expertise relevant to some extent to the particular work the Agency does. I hope this is helpful.

Letter from Ian Jones to Dr. Ian Gibson, dated July 1998: I have been asked to reply in respect of the Employment Tribunals Service to your question of 15 July 1998 to the President of the Board of Trade concerning civil servants who hold a science degree. We have no information readily available about the numbers of staff in the ETS with science degrees.

Letter from P. R. S. Hartnack to Dr. Ian Gibson, dated July 1998: I am replying for the Patent Office to your Parliamentary Question to the President of the Board of Trade about civil servants in her Department who have a degree in science and have held a position using that expertise. A total of 217 of the 750 Patent Office permanent staff have degrees in science—ie in science, engineering or mathematics. Of these 207 are professional patent examiners who make use of their expertise on a day to day basis either in examining patent applications or in a supervisory capacity. Most of the remaining 10 staff with science degrees have at one time or another been patent examiners and are now in supervisory positions elsewhere in the Patent Office dealing, for example, with procurement contracts. For completeness I should add that we also have a small number of graduates in science-related subjects such as geography, botany and environmental studies who do not make use of their expertise on a day-to-day basis.

Letter from Dr. Seton Bennett to Dr. Ian Gibson, dated July 1998: The President of the Board of Trade has asked me to reply on behalf of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory to your question about the number of civil servants with science degrees. More than half of the staff in this Agency hold technical qualifications of one sort or another, but we have no readily accessible reliable data on the number with science degrees.

Letter from John Holden to Dr. Ian Gibson, dated July 1998: I have been asked to reply to your question to the President of the Board of Trade regarding the number of civil servants with a degree in science and would respond as follows:

(a) 15 employees have a science degree.
(b) One who has previously held a position using that expertise.