To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) marketing officers, (b) communications officers and (c) press officers are employed in his Department; and what the total expenditure on communications for his Department was on (i) Government Information and Communication Service staff and (ii) other (A) press officers, (B) special advisers and (C) staff in the last year for which figures are available. (104357)

69.7 (full time equivalent - FTE) communications staff were employed centrally within DTI in 2005-06, as follows:

The pay bill for those staff during the same period was £2.9 million.

Information on staff numbers in communications elsewhere in the Department is not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.

The time spent by special advisers on communications work cannot be disaggregated from their other duties.