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Departmental Information Officers

Volume 495: debated on Monday 6 July 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the cost to his Department of (a) press officers and (b) other press office staff has been in each year since 1997. (283067)

The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. The cost to the Department of press office staff is as follows:

£

1999-20001

44,078

2000-01

139,705

2001-02

134,702

2002-03

135,919

2203-04

114,643

2004-05

105,266

2005-06

93,114

2006-07

270,283

2007-08

113,236

2008-09

124,373

1 Part year.

2 Running under complement.

The press office provides support to Scotland Office Ministers and officials, as well as the Office of the Advocate General. It has also been involved in providing logistical support to the Commission on Scottish Devolution and the Boundary Commission for Scotland. It operates a 24-hour on-call service for Ministers and has the responsibility for maintaining the Scotland Office website and media planning across the office.