Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) press officers, (b) internal communications officers, (c) external communications officers, (d) communications strategy officers and (e) other personnel with a communications remit were employed by (i) his Department, (ii) its agencies and (iii) each other non-departmental public body sponsored by his Department on the most recent date for which figures are available.

Anna Soubry

Communicators are employed across Defence and the Armed Forces. They have an important task in explaining to the public, the media, our own people and other audiences – at the local regional, national and international levels – the role of Defence, Defence activities, capabilities and operations. Over the last several years substantial savings have been made across the communications area, and further efficiencies will continue to be made.

The latest figures for the numbers involved in communications roles as at 31 March 2013 are shown in the attached table, and include all posts for which over 50% of the post’s core duties are communications. These figures include both military and civilian posts worldwide. In the 2013 exercise communications staff in Non-Departmental Public Bodies were not surveyed. As such, this data was requested separately.

Also shown are the figures for 31 March 2010, demonstrating a reduction of 12% (over 160 posts) in this time.