§ Mr. Peter DuncanTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many Civil Service jobs have been relocated to Dumfries and Galloway since 1997. [145680]
§ Mr. AlexanderThe information is not available in the form requested. Data are available on the number of Civil Service jobs in Scotland as a whole, although it is not possible to separate changes resulting from the relocation of existing work from changes due to new work arising and old jobs disappearing.
Detailed civil service Statistics for UK Departments are available at www.civil-service.for.uk/statistics.
I understand that the Scottish Executive is committed to the dispersal of public sector jobs and that as a result of this policy around 1,250 posts have been and plan to be located out with Edinburgh and that further 1,950 are covered by planned location reviews.