PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Employment Agencies (26 January 2015)

We have interpreted sourcing by recruitment and employment agencies to mean companies (third party suppliers) that we engage in recruiting permanent staff for the Department. We have used a total of five different agencies to source staff since 2010-11. A breakdown by year is provided below. The Department has not sourced any staff through recruitment or employment agencies from the beginning of the reporting year 2014/15 to date.

Year Number of agencies used to source staff

2010/11 3

2011/12 2

2012/13 1

2013/14 3

My Department has reduced staffing costs from £218 million a year in 2009-10 to £95 million in 2013-14. There is and remains a need to replace staff from general turnover and where we need specific technical skills. We are committed to open recruitment, so we can obtain individual staff with the best expertise from the private sector, the voluntary sector and other parts of the public sector.