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Departmental Information Officers

Volume 502: debated on Wednesday 9 December 2009

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many full-time equivalent press officers (a) are employed by and (b) work for his Department. (303606)

The number of full-time equivalent staff (FTE) employed on press officer activities on 1 April 2009 by the Department for Transport both directly and, where identifiable, indirectly is set out in the following table.

Staff (FTE) employed on press officer activities

DFT employees

Other workers1

DFT(C)

13

Nil

DSA

62

0

DVLA

5

Nil

GCDA

Nil

Nil

HA

11

3

MCA

2

Nil

VCA

Nil

Nil

VOSA

1

1

1 Other workers include temporary employment agency staff.

2 DSA figure includes fixed term employment

The staff resource deployed by the Central Office of Information in providing their regional News and PR services to parts of the Department can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The Highways Agency (HA) has seven regional press officers to support its new Traffic Officer service and seven regional control centres. These press officers are employed to raise awareness of the Traffic Officers and the agency's role as network operator for England's motorways and major A roads.