HC Deb 23 October 2001 vol 373 cc138-41W
Mr. Weir

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will estimate total staff costs for his Department and its agencies by nation and region of the UK; and if she will make a statement. [6835]

Ms Hewitt

The pay bill costs for the DTI, excluding the Patent Office and Companies House Trading Funds, but including the Department's gross and net controlled agencies, in 1999–2000 were £222 million. A more detailed breakdown is given in the Department's Expenditure Plans Report 2001–02 to 2003–04, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House (Cm 5112). The figure is not broken down geographically, and it would incur disproportionate cost to do so, but the Department's current staff, excluding those at the agencies and in Government offices, are distributed as follows:

Based Number of staff Percentage
England 4,457 94.7
Scotland 167 3.5
Wales 81 1.7
Northern Ireland 0 0

I have asked the agency and Trading Fund chief executives to reply directly in respect of the expenditure and staff for which they are responsible.

Letter from Chris de Grouchy to Mr. Michael Weir, dated 23 October 2001: Parliamentary Question—Staff Costs for DTI I am replying on behalf of our Chief Executive David Hendon who is currently away from the office. The total paybill costs, including Superannuation, for the Radiocommunications Agency for 2000–01 were £17.9m. The national and regional breakdown was as follows:

£ million
England 17.2
Scotland 0.3
Wales 0.2
Northern Ireland 0.2

Letter from Claire Clancy to Mr. Michael Weir, dated 23 October 2001: I am responding on behalf of the Patent Office, an Executive Agency of the DTI, to the Parliamentary question tabled on 23 July 2001 in which you asked the Secretary of State if she would estimate total staff costs for her Department and its agencies by nation and region of the UK. The paybill costs for the Patent Office in 2000–2001 were £24.5 million. A more detailed breakdown is given in our Annual Report 2000–01, a copy of which is available in the library of the House. The figure is not broken down geographically but the staff are distributed as follows:

  • 895 (98.7%) are based in Wales; and
  • 12 (1.3%) in England; and
  • 0 (0%) in Scotland; and
  • 0 (0%) in Northern Ireland.

Letter from Desmond Flynn to Mr. Michael Weir, dated 23 October 2001: The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has asked me to reply to your question about the total staff costs for The Insolvency Service. The pay bill costs for The Service in 1999–2000 were £36,683,000 and, in 2000–2001 £36,177,000. The figures are included in The Service's annual report and accounts, published in July 2001. The figures are not broken down geographically, and it would incur disproportionate cost to do so, but The Service's current staff are distributed as follows:

  • 1,539 (96.8%) are based in England;
  • 9 (0.6%) in Scotland;
  • 41 (2.6%) in Wales; and
  • 0 (0%) in Northern Ireland.

Letter from John Holden to Mr. Michael Weir, dated 23 October 2001: I have been asked to reply to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in respect of Companies House Executive Agency. The total pay bill including pension contributions and employer's National Insurance cost for the financial year ended 31 March 2001 was £17.4 million. These figures are not readily broken down by Region, but 94% of the workforce is based in Wales, 4% in Scotland and 2% in England. The total employed headcount on a full time equivalent basis was 954 on average for the same period.

Letter from Roger Heathcote to Mr. Michael Weir, dated 23 October 2001: I refer to your attached Parliamentary Question of 23 July, 2001. The contribution of the Employment Tribunals Service (ETS) to the total staff costs in question is as follows: Total costs for 2000–2001 for Great Britain were £22,289,000.00. A more detailed breakdown of numbers of staff and costs is given in the Annual Report and Accounts of the Employment Tribunals Service 2000–2001. The report is available at the ETS website, www.ets.gov.uk. The figure is not broken down geographically, and it would incur disproportionate cost to do so, but the Agency's current staff, as at the end of September 2001, are distributed as follows:

  • 607.9 (90.03%) are based in England
  • 51.8 (7.67%) are based in Scotland; and
  • 15.5 (2.30%) are based in Cardiff, Wales.

Letter from Iain MacGregor to Mr. Michael Weir, dated 23 October 2001: The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has asked me to reply on behalf of NWML to your question regarding the staff costs for DTI and its Agencies. The figures for NWML are as follows:

  • 1999/2000= £1 65 M
  • 2000/2001= £1.74 M

Mr. Weir

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will estimate the number of staff employed by her Department by region and nation of the UK; and if she will make a statement. [6834]

Ms Hewitt

The total staff in post figures for the DTI, including agencies (Companies House, Employment Tribunal Service, Insolvency Service, National Weights and Measures Laboratory, Patent Office and Radiocommunications Agency) is 10,099.

This figure is broken down by nation as follows:

Staff in post Percentage
England 7,620 75.45
Northern Ireland 6 0.06
Scotland 294 2.91
Wales 2,182 21.58

This figure is further broken down by nation and region (county) as follows:

Number
England
Avon 102
Bedfordshire 18
Berkshire 49
Cambridgeshire 23
Cheshire 25
Cleveland 95
Cornwall 1
Devon 76
Dorset 15
East Sussex 32
Essex 25
Gloucestershire 26
Greater London 5,282
Greater Manchester 146
Hampshire 78
Hertfordshire 134
Humberside 32
Kent 59
Lancashire 33
Leicestershire 36
Merseyside 68
Middlesex 60
Norfolk 26
Northamptonshire 24
Nottinghamshire 87
Oxfordshire 28
Shropshire 28
South Yorkshire 161
Staffordshire 17
Suffolk 76
Surrey 174
Tyne and Wear 79
Unknown 46
West Midlands 348
West Yorkshire 111
Northern Ireland
Down 5
Londonderry 1
Number
Scotland
Central 12
Grampian 85
Lothian 83
Strathclyde 109
Tayside 5
Wales
Gwent 919
South Glamorgan 1,244
West Glamorgan 16