To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) press and (b) communications officers his Department employed in each of the last 10 years. (182512)

Information on employees is only held for five years. The number of press officers working in the Northern Ireland Office for each of the five years is detailed in the following table. There are no communications officers in the Department.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much his Department paid in bonuses to press and communication officers in each of the last 10 years; and what the (a) highest and (b) lowest such bonus was in each of those years. (182724)

This information is held electronically for the previous two years and details are set out in the following table. Prior years would have to be obtained through a manual exercise and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

These are non-consolidated, non-pensionable, bonuses awarded for exceptional performance and additional workload.