§ Mr. WyattTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes there were in the number of customs officers between January 1988 and January 1998. [55656]
§ Dawn PrimaroloHM Customs and Excise employed 26,654 permanent staff (including Fixed Term Appointees) in April 1988 and 24,112 staff in April 1998, a drop of 2,542.
In respect of "Customs officers" engaged on operational duties (as opposed to VAT, Excise or non-operational staff), 7,754 staff were employed in the preventive (anti-smuggling and baggage check) and frontier customs functions in April 1998, and at the start of the present financial year Customs and Excise employed 3,990 staff in these functions.
On the surface, this represents a fall of 3,764 in the numbers of "Customs officers". However, the figures for the two years are not directly comparable as some former frontier work has moved inland, a change in operational policy meant that more customs work is now undertaken by staff in specialist investigation and intelligence units and the Department's vessels have also been moved to a 928W specialist unit with its own permanent crews. There are no figures available for the number of officers employed on customs work in these areas.