Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has set a target date for stopping NHS spending on off-framework agencies.

While we have not set a target date for stopping National Health Service spending on off-framework agencies, we continue to bear down on their use.

A temporary workforce market allows the NHS to meet demand fluctuations without the need to increase capacity above that which would be required on a sustained basis. Staff can be drawn from internal staff banks or external agencies. Our policy is to reduce the use of agency staff and to prioritise the use of in-house staff banks. Together with NHS England, we continue to monitor the rate of agency spending, and support trusts to develop in-house NHS staff banks, helping to ensure they have staff available when required and to reduce their requirement for agency staff.

NHS England works in partnership with trusts, systems and approved framework operators to reduce/eliminate off-framework supply into the NHS in order to give assurance on quality and value for money standards of the staff working via agencies.

Since 2015, we have controlled agency spend through price caps and procurement frameworks. Trusts are only able to override the capped agency rates or use off-framework suppliers on exceptional patient safety grounds.