asked the Secretary of State for Energy 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 number and cost of information officers employed by my Department at the beginning of each of the last four years were

	Number	Cost £
1976	23	152,145
1977	24	168,771
1978	25	191,376
1979	24	230,377
1980	25	257,268

The information officer group, in addition to press officers, includes information specialists in press and television advertising, publications, exhibitions and other paid publicity media.