To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff the Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which the Department is responsible had in each year since 1997; and what the cost of those staff was in each of those years. [122259]

Whilst it is possible to provide the overall civilian manpower numbers and associated costs for the Department for the years 1999–2000 to 2001–02, as this information is included in the Consolidated Departmental Resource Accounts, the figures for 2002–03 will not be available until the autumn of this year. In addition, the cost figures for 1997–98 and 1998–99, i.e. prior to the introduction of Resource Accounting, are not available. The Appropriation Accounts published at the time did not break expenditure down to this level. Those figures available are included at Table 1.The staff numbers for non-departmental public bodies and defence agencies are attached at Tables 2 and 3 respectively. However, the associated costs are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.