Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his single departmental plan, what targets he has set to (a) reduce the time it takes to hire, (b) support the introduction of new tools and technology to improve selection and (c) use a new recruitment hub to reduce the administrative burden on vacancy managers.

Following a successful pilot period, MHCLG’s Recruitment Hub was launched in February 2018. Although we have not set targets, the Hub uses a web-based selection and applicant tracking system designed to reduce management time, improve candidates’ experience and, through name-blind assessment and other techniques, improve the equality of shortlisting decisions. As part of a range of people-related metrics, we monitor the effectiveness of our recruitment and resourcing processes. This includes 'time to hire', which has fallen from an average of 80 days in March 2017 to 65 days in April 2018. We will continue to pursue further process efficiencies.