Departmental Information Officers

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many (a) press and (b) communications officers his Department employed in each of the last 10 years. (182523)

The number of press officers employed by the Department in each of the last 10 years is shown in the table:

	Press officers
1998-99	9
1999-2000	8
2000-01	9
2001-02	8
2002-03	9
2003-04	10
2004-05	9
2005-06	¹13
2006-07	¹13
2007-08	¹10
¹ This includes press officers working on the Olympics.

The Department does not have a “communication officer” grade. The “White Book” of contacts in Government Departments and agencies contains listings for the Department and the book is updated twice yearly.

Volume 472: debated on Wednesday 20 February 2008