§ Mr. ChaytorTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps she has taken to relocate staff in(a) his Department and (b) the agencies for which she is responsible to the regions of the United Kingdom with the highest levels of unemployment; and what plans she has further to decentralise the location of her Department and its agencies. [70462]
§ Clare ShortThe Department for International Development (DFID) operations are already decentralised. We have two offices in the UK: 414 staff are located in East Kilbride and 755 in London. In addition DFID has offices 635W abroad in Bangkok, Harare, Bridgetown, Dhaka, Delhi, Nairobi, Pretoria and Suva employing, mainly under contract, 207 UK-based and 280 locally recruited staff.
I also refer my hon. Friend to "Civil Service Statistics 1998" which is available in the Library of the House and which provides a regional breakdown of staff.
In April 1998 my Department announced that 43 jobs from DFID's London office would be moved to East Kilbride. I have no plans to relocate any further parts of my Department. My Department has no agencies.