National Bee Unit: Manpower

Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people were employed in the National Bee Unit at the Central Science Laboratory in each of the last five years for which records are available.

Barry Gardiner
The number of people employed in the Central Science Laboratory National Bee Unit in the last five years is as follows:

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|Financial year                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |Numbers of staff|FTE  |
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|2002-03                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |51              |30.53|
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|2003-04                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |51              |32.12|
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|2004-05                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |50              |27.36|
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|2005-06                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |48              |24.34|
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|2006-07                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |54              |27.12|
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|2007-08                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |48              |27.64|
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|Notes:1. FTE is full time equivalents. Numbers of staff are expressed as FTEs as a number of the NBU staff including inspectors work seasonally or part-time during the course of the year.2. Data for 2007-08 are forecast figures.|                |     |
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