asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the annual cost of the Economics and Statistics Unit of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland for the last three years; how many persons are employed in the current year and how many were employed in the three preceding years; and whether he intends to review the functions and activities of the unit.

The cost—including staff and accommodation costs—of the Economics and Statistics Unit of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland and the staff numbers in post for each of the last three years was as follows:

	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79
Annual cost	£270,000	£295,000	£330,000
Staff numbers	49	50	52

as compared with 51 staff in post at present. Against these costs there are receipts of some £40,000 per annum for data provided to the EEC.The unit's functions have already been reviewed since this Government took office, and I intend to make a cut of about 11 per cent. in the staffing provision as a contribution to the Scottish Office manpower savings which I announced recently. This will be done by reducing functions, mainly statistical, as far as is consistent with basic obligations under United Kingdom and EEC legislation. In particular, the December full census will be replaced with a sample survey, the number of small units excluded from most censuses and surveys will be increased, and some other survey work will be curtailed.