asked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will give the total number of staff employed in his Department on 1 May 1979 and the total staff costs, with similar details for 1 January; and what action he proposes to take to reduce the costs of administration of his Department during the current year.

The numbers of civilian staff employed on 1 May 1979 and 1January 1980 were 285,000 and 279,000 respectively. These figures include some 37,000 locally engaged civilians overseas and about 22,000 staff of the Royal Ordnance factories which operate a separate trading fund.The cost to Defence Votes of civilian pay and related expenditure was £101 million in April 1979 and £125 million in December 1979.A number of reviews of both administrative and productive aspects of the Department's organisation are being carried out, including catering and cleaning, quality assurance, bill paying, supply management, R & D establishments and the Royal dockyards and I shall be considering their outcome during the coming months. In addition, later in the year, I shall be reviewing all aspects of general administration costs in the Department, although these only account for a small proportion of total staff effort.