To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) special advisers and (b) press officers have been employed by his Department in each year from 1994–95 to 2002–03; and at what cost in each year. [92444]

With regards to Special Advisers I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided by my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley, South (Mr. Alexander) on 31 January 2003, Official Report, column 1056W. Press officer numbers are listed in the following table:

Year	Number of press officers	Cost £ thousand
1996–97	16	369,000
1997–98	13	332,000
1998–99	13	329,000
1999–2000	16	345,000
2000–01	31	863,000
2001–02⋆	35	1 million
2002–03	37

Staff numbers for the press office increased when a Newsdesk was established in 2000. This was one of the recommendations from the independent external consultants who carried out a review of the structure and operation of the press office in 1999. One of the benefits of has been that media calls to the press office are being answered within four rings 90 per cent of the time. Previously there were occasions when up to 40 per cent of media calls were lost.Information prior to 1996/97 was not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.⋆The Prison Service press office joined the Home Office in May 2001