To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many staff in her Department are based in or allocated to regional activities; and what the salary costs of those staff were in the last financial year. (130124)

Communities and Local Government had 950 (Full-Time Equivalent 910) out of a total 2,799 (Full-Time Equivalent 2,681) staff based in the nine Government Offices for the Regions at the end of the last financial year 2005-06. Communities and Local Government's share of these 2,799 staffs costs was broadly pro-rata to its 34 per cent. staff numbers, but that element could be separated from its overall Government Office Administration resource contribution of £138,741,000¹ only at disproportionate cost.

In addition, a number of staff in the Department's HQ contribute to work aimed at delivering the Government's regional objectives. These include those working on regional resilience, on the regional economic performance public service agreement target, on broader cities and regions policy, in planning and housing strategy and on the development of Communities England. They also include the staff of the Regional Co-ordination Unit, which provides central services to all ten Departments operating through the Government Office network.

Again, it is not possible to disaggregate the specifically regional elements of these staffs activities, but the Department's Annual Report 2006 sets out in detail the resources allocated to different work streams.