§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the budget is for each of the Government offices for the regions for 2003–04 and what the budget of each has been for each of the previous three years. [164828]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe running cost budgets of Government Offices for the Regions have increased as more Departments have devolved more work to be carried out in the regions. The budgets for 2003–04 and each of the previous three years are tabled as follows:
Amounts in £000 GO 2003–04 North East 12,061 North West 17,508 Yorkshire and Humber 12,848 West Midlands 13,043 East Midlands 10,861 East 12,950 South East 14,461 South West 14,053 London 16,611 Totals 124,396 1648W
Amounts in £000 GO 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 North East 8,197.33 8,973.88 10,074.76 North West 13,651.03 15,250.91 13,543.84 Yorkshire and Humber 9,357.21 9,889.50 11,094.48 West Midlands 9,960.77 10,315.96 10,584.49 Data are not held centrally on the percentage of each year's fire and rescue service recruits who remain on as serving officers for East Midlands region or for West Derbyshire. The cost of gathering the information about the FRS concerned could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
Amounts in £000 GO 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 East Midlands 7,335.77 8,200.80 8,835.46 East 7,542.50 8,532.82 9,357.24 South East 9,477.27 10,309.34 10,860.12 South West 8,711.39 10,671.85 11,752.84 London 13,860.98 13,175.10 14,082.01 Totals 88,094.25 95,320.16 102,185.24 The growth in the Government Office over the last three years is attributable to additional sponsor Departments joining and contributing staff and funding to the network, notably Defra (formerly MAFF) in 2001–02 and Home Office in 2002–03.