Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much her Department has spent on (a) consultants, (b) temporary staff and (c) contingent labour in each of the last five years; how many people have been so employed; what the length of contract of each such person was; and what equivalent civil service salary band each was on.

Because of the devolution of policing and justice functions on 12 April 2010 to the Northern Ireland Executive, and subsequent reconfiguration of the Northern Ireland Office, my Department does not hold figures for the periods prior to 2010. Attempting to obtain this information would incur disproportionate cost.

The details regarding expenditure by my Department for the last four financial years in respect of (a) consultants, (b) temporary staff and (c) contingent labour are as follows:

(a) Expenditure on consultants:

(b) Expenditure on temporary staff:

My Department does not record details for staff who could be considered as contingent labour separately. These details are contained within the information for temporary staff. To provide this information and details of staff numbers, contract types and equivalent civil service grades would incur disproportionate costs.