asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report the number, and the average cost, of information officers employed by his Department at the beginning of each of the last four years.

The numbers of information officer Group staff employed in my Department at the beginning of each of the last five calendar years, together with their approximate cost based on annual average salaries and employer's national insurance contributions for the years in question were as follows:

	Number	Cost
		£,000s
1 January 1976	179	960
1 January 1977	171	993
1 January 1978	155	985
1 January 1979	146	1,010
1 January 1980	145	1,305

The information officer group in the Ministry of Defence, in addition to press and public relations officers, includes information specialists in exhibitions, publications, paid publicity and film production.