asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list the number of information officers, together with the number of supporting staff, there were in his Department in each of the last five years.

The number of information officers together with their supporting staff employed in the Department of Energy at the beginning of each of the last five years are:

Year	Information Officers	Supporting Staff	Total
1975	16	11	27
1976	23	11	34
1977	24	11	35
1978	25	13	38
1979	24	13	37
1980	25	12	37

The increase since 1975 is largely accounted for by the recruitment of staff to support the Government's energy conservation information programme.