Public Libraries
Culture Media and Sport
Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport
(1) how many officials in her Department have been employed in dealing with issues relating to library closures since May 2010;
(2) how much her Department has spent on library closures since May 2010.
Hugh Robertson (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport; Faversham and Mid Kent, Conservative)
holding answer
The Department operates a flexible working model and allocates staff to current priorities. Therefore staffing levels have fluctuated since May 2010, but on average the libraries team has comprised 2.8 full-time equivalent officials (one at Grade A and 1.8 at Grade B) working on issues related to library closures alongside wider library related policy work.
The only costs to date have been the proportion of staff salaries that relate to time spent on library closure work. As officials are not asked to log the proportion of their time spent on issues relating to library closures we are unable to provide an accurate estimate of cost, but details of staff pay bands are available on the Department's transparency web site at: