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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff are employed in the Department to work in the communications field, broken down by (a) Government Information and Communication Service staff and (b) other staff, broken down by (i) press officers, (ii) special advisers and (iii) others. [158164] Mr. Caplin: As of 15 March 2004, there were 130 people employed within the communications organisation in the Ministry of Defence Headquarters. Of these, 24 are members of the Government Information and Communication Service. Of the remainder, seven work in the Press Office and the others are employed on a wide range of tasks including design, publicity, marketing, internal communications and strategic planning. Ministers in the department have two special advisers, neither of whom are members of the communications organisation. The Special Advisers' Code of Conduct sets out the sort of work a special adviser may undertake on behalf of their Minister and this includes communications activity. In addition to the above, a number of people are employed, either wholly or partly, in communications related work throughout defence. These include staff working in defence agencies, the permanent joint Headquarters, single service commands and individual military units. Accurate information on all of these posts is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

158164; 419 c543-4W;419 c545-6W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Government departments Staff Special advisers Ministry of Defence Information officers Information services

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk