asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list for the period since 1979 the reduction or increase in manpower in (a) the Civil Service, (b) local government, (c) the National Health Service and (d) nationalised industries after allowing for privatisation both in actual numbers of persons employed and in percentage terms; and if he will make a statement.

The figures on a full-time equivalent basis are as follows (thousands):

	Mid 1979	Mid 1986	Difference	Per cent.
Civil Service1	732	594	-138	-18·8
Local authorities	2,368	22,286	-82	-3·5
National Health Service	975	31,016	+41	+4·2
Nationalised industries4	1,304	876	-428	-32·8
1 Includes Royal Ordnance Factories in 1979 which are excluded from Civil Service numbers in 1986, but not yet privatised. Manpower numbers related to 1 April.
2 Excludes 66,000 community programme workers.
3 Provisional estimates.
4 Excludes the following corporations, privatised since mid-1979:British Aerospace, National Freight Corporation, BNOC, Britoil, Associated British Ports, British Telecom, British Gas and British Airways; and London Regional Transport, which became a nationalised industry from 1984.

The figures given do not make any allowance for privatisation by way of contracting out of services or the disposal of subsidiaries by nationalised industries.Source: Civil Service manpower statistics, and data underlying "Employment in the Public and Private Sector, 1980–86" Economic Trends, December 1986.