Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent staff were employed in the health improvement directorate of (a) the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and (b) Public Health England in each year since 2017.

A Health Improvement Directorate was not part of the structure of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) when it was established as part of the Department, in October 2021. The OHID incorporated people and health improvement functions from different parts of Public Health England (PHE) and the Department. The following figures show the total civil servant full time equivalent (FTE) complement of the OHID since its establishment in October 2021:

- 1,115 FTE civil servants as of 31 March 2022;

- 923 FTE civil servants as of 31 March 2023; and

- 777 FTE civil servants as of 31 December 2023.

The number of FTE staff recorded as assigned to PHE’s Health Improvement directorate from 2017 to 2021 was:

- 991 as of May 2017;

- 1,041 as of March 2018;

- 1,064 as of March 2019;

- 1,086 as of March 2020; and

- 1,062 as of March 2021.