Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) expenditure limit and (b) actual spend was for agency staffing spend for each NHS (i) integrated care system, (ii) trust and (iii) foundation in the 2022-23 financial year; and what the expenditure limit will be for each organisation in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England does not set limits by trusts, but rather by systems. The attached table lists the system agency expenditure limits for 2022/23 and 2023/24.
NHS England re-established agency expenditure limits for systems in September 2022. The limits set for 2022/23 require at least a 10% reduction compared to the previous year in line with provider plans. Limits in 2023/24 have been set with the ambition of reducing total agency expenditure by trusts (in aggregate) to 3.7% of the total estimated National Health Service pay bill.
Agency spend data in 2022/23 is not yet available. Provider financial accounts for 2022/23, including data on agency spending, is currently being audited and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) total, (b) substantive, (c) bank and (d) agency workforce was at each NHS (i) integrated care system, (ii) trust and (iii) foundation trust in (A) April and (B) September 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Substantive staff data collected is published by NHS England, with the most recent data available being from July 2023. The data is available at the following link:
Headcount data is available by trust and integrated care system. Bank and agency headcount data is unvalidated and is not of a statistical quality for publication.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's Annual Report and Accounts for 2021-22, published in July 2022, HC 500, and for 2022-23, published in July 2023, HC 1468, what the (a) Consultancy and (b) Temporary Staff costs were for each contract for MOD main building in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Department does not maintain records of temporary staff and consultancy contract numbers and expenditure by location. However, we can confirm that the value of expenditure on consultancy and temporary staff incurred by the Department’s Head Office in 2022-23 and 2021-22 was as follows:
Head Office and Enabling Organisations | 2022-23 £million | 2021-22 £million |
Consultancy | 16.066 | 10.620 |
Temporary Staff | 11.480 | 6.425 |
Head Office includes a number of different teams for example the Directorate General Finance, Chief of Defence People, Secretariat, Policy and Operations as well as others.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Cabinet Office statistics on Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, how many permanent civil servants excluding agencies worked for her Department on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Headcount of civil servants who worked for the Department on 31 March of 2011, 2016 and 2020 can be found in the ONS Public Sector Employment Publication,
On 2 October 2023, the Chancellor announced an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity.
The Civil Service grew in size to manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the illegal war in Ukraine, but it is right that we reduce the size of the Civil Service over time as we drive up productivity and deliver efficiencies.
Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of SCS2 civil servants on full-time contracts in her Department are women.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As of the 31 of October 2023, the proportion of officials in the Department that are graded as senior civil servant 2 and are women on full time equivalent contracts is 64.9%. This figure was calculated by dividing the number of women at senior civil servant 2 grade on full time contracts by the total number of staff at senior civil servant 2 grade on full time contracts. This figure includes the Department, as well as its executive agencies – Education and Skills Funding Agency, Teaching Regulation Agency, Standard and Testing Agency.
The official public sector employment statistics published in June 2023 by the Office for National Statistics include data on the proportion of staff on temporary contracts who are women. These figures can be accessed at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable.
In 2022/23, more than half of new entrants to the civil service were women (54.1%). In 2021/22, 51.6% of new entrants and 53.9% of promotions to the senior civil service were women.
Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of civil servants on temporary contracts in her Department are women.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As of the 31 of October 2023, the proportion of officials in the Department that are graded as senior civil servant 2 and are women on full time equivalent contracts is 64.9%. This figure was calculated by dividing the number of women at senior civil servant 2 grade on full time contracts by the total number of staff at senior civil servant 2 grade on full time contracts. This figure includes the Department, as well as its executive agencies – Education and Skills Funding Agency, Teaching Regulation Agency, Standard and Testing Agency.
The official public sector employment statistics published in June 2023 by the Office for National Statistics include data on the proportion of staff on temporary contracts who are women. These figures can be accessed at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable.
In 2022/23, more than half of new entrants to the civil service were women (54.1%). In 2021/22, 51.6% of new entrants and 53.9% of promotions to the senior civil service were women.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to Cabinet Office statistics on Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, how many permanent civil servants excluding agencies worked for his Department on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Statistics on Civil Service employment by Department and agency are published by the Office for National Statistics on gov.uk at the following link:
Statistics for Defence and its agencies can be found at Table 9 for each quarter.
It is important to note that the structure of Ministry of Defence has changed significantly since 2011, meaning that figures for that year are not directly comparable.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference his Department's statistics on Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, how many permanent civil servants excluding agencies worked for his Department on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 2 October 2023, the Chancellor announced an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity.
The Civil Service grew in size to manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the illegal war in the Ukraine but it is right that we reduce the size of the Civil Service over time as we drive up productivity and deliver efficiencies.
As part of this Government’s commitment to transparency, my Department publishes workforce statistics each month. Information about staffing levels since 2006 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/payroll-costs-and-non-consolidated-pay-data
The data requested can be found at the following links
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Cabinet Office statistics on Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, how many permanent civil servants excluding agencies worked for her Department on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The data on the number of permanent staff employed by the Department, excluding agencies, in March 2016 is available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable/march2016/psereferencetablesmarch2016.xls. The data for March 2020 is available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable/march2020/datasets.xlsx. Data for 2011 includes agencies due to reporting arrangements in 2011. This is available at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20150905000144mp_/http:/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pse/public-sector-employment/q1-2011/stb-q1-2011.pdf.
The Department’s resources are routinely reviewed to ensure the Department has the capabilities and capacity required to respond to changing priorities and deliver efficiently and effectively.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to Cabinet Office statistics on Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, how many permanent civil servants excluding agencies worked for her Department on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
On 2 October 2023, The Chancellor announced an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity.
The Civil Service grew in size to manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the illegal war in Ukraine but it is right that we reduce the size of the Civil Service over time as we drive up productivity and deliver efficiencies.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) was formed in 2023, thus data for previous years is unavailable.
Links to the predecessor departments can be found below: