Note 5 Employment costs
	1997 £m	1996 £m
a) Employment costs during the year	___________________________________
Wages and salaries	1,216	1,065
Social security costs	83	73
Other pension costs (note 25)	55	46
	___________________________________
	1,354	1,184
	___________________________________
b) Number of persons employed The average number of employees per week during the year was: UK 143,694 (1996 - 130,308), Europe 9,504 (1996 - 4,729) and the average number of full-time equivalents was: UK 89,649 (1996 - 80,650), Europe 8,791 (1996 - 4,245).