The wage bill for 5,000 extra press officers hired between 2002 and 2009 stands at £126m.
That\’s an annual cost btw.
Standard back of the envelope costing is total employment cost is twice wages. A nice quarter billion we can cut off the cost of government without any problem then, don\’t you think?
Nope … government communication is an important part of the democratic process. What is essential is that the press officers should do their jobs well and give value for money – issues not addressed by simply identifying costs, and a different point to the one you made.
Sorry, Richard, but I’ll go with the savings and let government’s successes (whatever those are) be kept as their little secret.
Richard,
You are a government press officer and I claim my five pounds.
As to the total cost of employment factor do you have a reference? I always thought it to be much lower.