§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) of 2 March 2000,Official Report, column 385W, for what reasons the statistics given on the number of press officers in his Department differed from the statistics given to the Select Committee on Public Administration and published in its report, The Government Information and Communication Service (HC770) in July 1998; and if he will publish statistics comparable to those provided to the Select Committee for the dates requested by the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald; and if he will make a statement. [113801]
§ Mr. StrawOne difference between the two sets of statistics is that the figures provided to the Select Committee included senior managers, press officers and staff on temporary attachments; whereas the question asked by the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) specifically requested only the number of press officers employed in the Department on certain dates.
The other difference lies in the fact that the figures provided to the Select Committee represented averages of Press Office staff over 12 month periods as opposed to the figures requested by the right hon. Member for a specific series of dates.
In addition, some secondments and attachments are very short term and individuals are not always on the Home Office payroll.
Therefore, it is not possible to supply comparable statistics in the form requested by the hon. Member.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) of 3 March 2000,Official Report, column 384W, on press officer salaries, on what basis press officers recruited to the news team could have earnings up to and beyond £30,000, as stated in the recruitment document, Just Another Day at the Office; what will be the maximum earnings of press officers recruited to the news team; and if he will make a statement. [113808]
§ Mr. StrawAs stated in my reply of 3 March, to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe), press officers will be largely recruited at Information Officer grade for which the pay band salary is up to £27,709. Press officers working on the news team will be operating on a rota system for which there is an822W additional shift disturbance allowance amounting to 12.5 per cent. of salary. All press officers, including those on the news team, are expected to join an out of hours duty rota, nights and weekends, for which overtime is paid. There is also a non-pensionable recruitment and retention allowance which can be varied at management's discretion.
For those candidates recruited at the top end of the Information Officer pay scale, which would be dependent on factors such as experience and current salary, annual earnings could therefore be up to and beyond £30,000 as stated in the recruitment document.
Due to the varying hours press officers will work, their individual circumstances on taking up post and the unpredictable amount of overtime which might be payable, it is not possible to give an exact figure for the maximum earnings of a press officer.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library the report by Clear Communications Ltd. which led to the restructuring of his Department's Press Office. [113799]