Professional Statisticians (Hansard, 28 April 1999)

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many staff by grade are employed as professional statisticians in his Department; how many of these staff have been accepted as fast stream by the Civil Service Selection Board; and how many have been granted chartered statistician status by the Royal Statistical Society. [81208]

§ Mr. Dewar
[holding answer 23 April 1999]: Statistical work is undertaken by a range of specialists, including Research Officers, Economists and Statisticians. Since 1996, The Scottish Office has employed statisticians through its own departmental recruitment as well as through the Civil Service Selection Board. This resulted from a rapid growth in statistics posts coupled with a shortfall of recruits from the Civil Service Selection Board source.
Withe my Department there are 36 statisticians recruited through the Civil Service Selection Board: 25 at Band C and 11 at Band B. There are also 13 statisticians at Band B who were directly recruited by the Department. All are managed by a chief professional officer at Senior Civil Service level: at the present time this post is vacant.
Affiliation to the Royal Statistical Society is not mandatory and some members of staff may not have reported acquisition of Chartered Statistician status. There are four statisticians at Band C who are known to hold Chartered Statistician status./

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many staff who have worked as professional statisticians in his Department have left on early retirement in each of the past 10 years. [81188]

§ Mr. Dewar
[holding answer 23 April 1999]: Statistical work is undertaken by a range of specialists, including Research Officers, Economists and Statisticians. Since 1996, The Scottish Office has employed statisticians through its own departmental recruitment as well as through the Civil Service Selection Board. This resulted 176W from a rapid growth in statistics posts coupled with a shortfall of recruits from the Civil Service Selection Board source.
The number of professional statisticians who have left on early retirement in the last 10 years is seven. Four of these had transferred into administration at an earlier stage in their career. Details by year are shown in the table.

Early retirement of staff who have worked as professional statisticians

Year Number

1998–1999 1

1997–1998 1

1996–1997 2

1995–1996 —

1994–1995 2

1993–1994 1

1992–1993 —

1991–1992 —

1990–1991 —

1989–1990 —

Early retirement of staff who have worked as professional statisticians
Year	Number
1998–1999	1
1997–1998	1
1996–1997	2
1995–1996	—
1994–1995	2
1993–1994	1
1992–1993	—
1991–1992	—
1990–1991	—
1989–1990	—