asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will outline the staffing levels of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in each year from 1979 to 1982 and indicate the impact of the changes on customs cover.

Numbers of permanent staff in post in Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in each of the years 1979 to 1982 were as follows:

	Numbers
1 April 1979	28,771
1 April 1980	27,232
1 April 1981	26,827
1 April 1982	26,193
31 December
1982	25,585

The reduction in the departments' staff numbers over this period contributed to the Government's target of a smaller Civil Service. In the Customs area staff savings have been achieved mainly through improvements in the efficiency of controls, more efficient utilisation of available resources, and a more rigorous scrutiny of requests for additional or new Customs facilities.