Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff in his Department and its executive agencies and associated bodies were engaged off-payroll in each of the last five years up to the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The number of staff (expressed as Full Time Equivalents: (FTE)) engaged ‘off payroll’ - defined as agency workers, contractors and consultants - by the Department and its executive agencies: the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Public Health England (PHE) are given in the tables below.
Figures for the Department
Financial Year | Total FTE |
2010 - 11 | 507.1 |
2011 - 12 | 353.1 |
2012 - 13 | 399.5 |
2013 - 14 | 262.7 |
2014 – 15 to date | 187.5 |
Figures for MHRA
Financial Year | Total FTE |
2010 - 11 | Nil |
2011 - 12 | Nil |
2012 - 13 | 2.0 |
2013 - 14 | 3.0 |
2014 – 15 to date | 2.7 |
Figures for PHE (Established 1 April 2013)
Financial Year | Total FTE |
2013 - 14 | 490.9 |
2014 – 15 to date | 283.7 |
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department spent on (a) recruitment agency fees, (b) outplacement agency fees for displaced or redundant staff and (c) staff training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department does use recruitment agencies to recruit some Senior Civil Servants (SCS). The table below sets out how much was spent on recruitment agency fees for SCS appointments, for the last five financial years. In addition, as part of the Department’s recruitment process, at SCS level, shortlisted candidates are required to undergo psychometric assessment prior to their interview. These assessments are carried out by recruitment agents (or their representatives) and form part of our overall recruitment costs. Advertising costs are not included.
Financial Year | Spend on Recruitment Agency Fees (£) | Spend for Psychometric Assessments (£) |
2010-11 | 45,673.02 | 18,220 |
2011-12 | 159,284.88 | 29,190 |
2012-13 | 48,644.65 | 38,265 |
2013-14 | 76,889.49 | 15,620 |
2014-15 to date | 68,906.35 | 14,971 |
The Department did use an outplacement agency to outplace some displaced or redundant staff. The table below presents how much was spent on this service with the company concerned in the past five financial years.
Financial Year | Spend on Outplacement Agency Fees (£) |
2010-11 | Nil |
2011-12 | Nil |
2012-13 | 6,204 |
2013-14 | 15,977 |
2014-15 to date | 142 For services received in previous year |
The Department is committed to developing its staff and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to carry out their work.
The Department complies with Cabinet Office procurement controls and as such the preferred supplier for training is Civil Service Learning, who manage the central procurement of “core curriculum” training.
Local administration budgets for directorates and their constituent sections will include learning and development expenditure. Learning and development is funded from both a central Departmental budget and Directorate budgets. Directorates have the discretion to use their budgets to fund professional and technical training relevant to their business needs.
The total spend on staff training in the last five years, combining both central spend by the Learning and Development section of Human Resources (HR) and spend by local Directorates, mentioned above, is presented in the table below, The figures in the table below include payments for Civil Service HR expert services which in turn includes Civil Service Learning fees.
Financial Year | Spend on Staff training |
| £ |
2010-11 | 800,043 |
2011-12 | 976,572 |
2012-13 | 1,037,196 |
2013-14 | 779,461 |
2014-15 to 31 December 2014 | 629,584 |
The information in all the above tables does not include costs incurred for programme-funded, non-permanent workers or those for workers employed by the Department’s executive agencies.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many complex social discharges there were in each of the last four years for which figures are available.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he has met which (a) representatives of and (b) organisations working on behalf of the homeopathy industry since 2012.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Ministers have had no meetings with representatives or organisations from the homeopathy industry since 2012.
Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many women resident in Scotland have had a late termination after 20 weeks which took place in England in each of the last 10 years up to the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Women resident in Scotland, who had an abortion in England or Wales, by gestation 2004-2013 is shown in the following table.
Year | Gestation 20 + weeks |
2004 | 77 |
2005 | 83 |
2006 | 91 |
2007 | 108 |
2008 | 92 |
2009 | 86 |
2010 | 83 |
2011 | 100 |
2012 | 83 |
2013 | 75 |