To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what functions his Department carries out at the regional level; where the regional offices are located in each of the regions; what staff are employed and at what grades; what proportion of his Department's budget is spent in each of the regions; and what geographical boundaries determine his Department's regions.
The regional network of the Department of Trade and Industry comprises eight regional offices in England together with their sub-offices and satellites. Their main tasks are:
(1) To promote a better understanding of Government policies in the regions, to gather intelligence about industry and commerce, and to represent regional interests to Government.
(2) To promote and administer all parts of the Enterprise Initiative.
Details of the geographical boundaries and location of(3) To co-operate with other Government Departments, particularly through the City Action Teams, and with regional development organisations, local authorities, chambers of commerce, local enterprise agencies and other regional and local bodies.
| Staff by grade (including casually employed staff) as at 1 February 1990 | |||||||||
| DTI NE | DTI NW | DTI YH | DTI EM | DTI WM | DTI East | DTI SE | DTI SW | Total | |
| Grade 3 | 2·0 | 1·0 | 1·0 | — | 1·0 | — | — | — | 5·0 |
| Grade 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Grade 5 | 1·0 | 2·0 | 1·0 | 1·0 | 1·0 | 1·0 | 1·0 | 1·0 | 9·0 |
| Grade 6 | 4·0 | 4·0 | 3·0 | 3·0 | 3·0 | 2·0 | 5·0 | 3·0 | 27·0 |
| Grade 7 | 10·0 | 10·0 | 7·0 | 4·0 | 9·0 | 3·0 | 5·0 | 4·0 | 52·0 |
| SEO | 15·0 | 14·0 | 10·0 | 5·0 | 14·0 | — | 4·0 | 1·0 | 63·0 |
| SPTO/SSO | 2·0 | 1·0 | 1·0 | 2·0 | 1·0 | — | — | 2·0 | 9·0 |
| HEO | 29·0 | 33·0 | 21·0 | 18·0 | 24·0 | 7·0 | 19·0 | 12·0 | 163·0 |
| HPTO/HSO | 1·0 | 1·0 | 3·0 | 1·0 | 2·0 | — | 1·0 | — | 9·0 |
| I0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1·0 | — | 1·0 |
| E0 | 51·0 | 39·0 | 26·0 | 15·0 | 31·0 | 10·0 | 32·0 | 19·0 | 223·0 |
| AO | 32·5 | 38·5 | 21·0 | 17·5 | 35·0 | 15·0 | 43·5 | 25·5 | 228·5 |
| AA | 25·5 | 28·0 | 19·0 | 9·0 | 27·5 | 3·0 | 13·0 | 5·5 | 130·5 |
| TM/Typist | 8·0 | 8·0 | 5·0 | 5·0 | 12·5 | 3·0 | — | 7·5 | 49·0 |
| PS/SPS | 6·0 | 7·0 | 4·0 | 3·0 | 5·0 | 2·0 | 5·0 | 2·0 | 34·0 |
| Support staff | 3·0 | — | 6·0 | 5·0 | 6·0 | — | 0·5 | 1·0 | 21·5 |
| Total | 190·0 | 186·5 | 128·0 | 88·5 | 172·0 | 46·0 | 130·0 | 83·5 | 1,024·5 |
the regional offices are contained in the DTI guide for business, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library.
While some DTI programmes have a strong regional emphasis, the vast majority are delivered nationally and it is not therefore possible to provide precise figures for expenditure by region for all schemes. For areas where programme spend can be attributed to individual offices the proportional spends are as follows:
Per cent. of spend under The Industrial Development Act 1982
| Per cent. of spend under The Consultancy Initiatives
| |
| DTI NE | 39·6 | 4·8 |
| DTI NW | 25·6 | 17·4 |
| DTI YH | 16·0 | 11·2 |
| DTI EM | 3·2 | 6·6 |
| DTI WM | 9·2 | 12·2 |
| DTI SE | 2·1 | 19·3 |
| DTI SW | 4·2 | 7·0 |
| DTI East | — | 5·4 |
| Scotland and Wales | — | 16·6 |
The budget for administrative expenditure in 1989–90 by the regional offices is £18·8 million, some 6 per cent. of the total administrative expenditure of the Department. The expenditure by region is as follows:
£ million
| |
| DTI EM | 1·6 |
| DTI NE | 3·4 |
| DTI WM | 3·0 |
| DTI SE | 2·7 |
| DTI YH | 2·3 |
| DTI NW | 3·7 |
| DTI East | 0·5 |
| DTI SW | 1·5 |
A breakdown of staff by grade in each of the regional offices is as follows:
Department's research establishments. Information broken down by region on the administrative costs of these operations is not readily available.
The staff that they employ, however, represent some 14 per cent. of total DTI staffing (excluding Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and are located as follows:
Staff in post as at 1 January 1990
| |
Number
| |
| North East | 58 |
| North West | 184 |
| Yorks and Humberside | 100·5 |
| East Midlands | 87 |
| West Midlands | 276 |
| South West | 125·5 |
| South East (excluding London) | 547 |
| Total | 1,378 |