The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many agency workers have been employed as cover for uniform operational support staff in each month since January 2014.
Andrew Selous
Since April 2010 we have cut our overall spend on temporary staff by £35.5m. We only use temporary staff to fill business-critical posts and essential frontline services where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in-house. We will continue to examine our use of contractors and look for further reductions.
In responding to each question we have utilised data provided by our contracted supplier of temporary clerical staff and contracted supplier of temporary operational staff. As the data provided has been supplied by two different third parties there is a slight difference in the way that the answer to question 3 and 4 has been presented.
Temporary operational staff relate to Operational Support Grades (OSGs) used within HM Prison Service. We have contracts in place to provide temporary OSGs to fill in gaps in requirements, for building projects or to fill vacancies short term. Temporary OSGs are a very small proportion of our staff complement.
Uniform operational support staff are Operational Support Grades (OSGs).These are uniformed staff who undertake a wide range of duties in prisons, for example operating prison gates, working in security and managing stores areas. They also escort contractors and their vehicles.
1) The following amounts (exclusive of VAT) have been spent on clerical agency staff across –
January 2014 – £2,983,633.14 (5 week period)
February 2014 – £2,613,023.10 (4 week period)
March 2014 – £2,591,678.87 (4 week period)
April 2014 – £2,900,742.70 (5 week period)
May 2014 – £2,398,053.57 (4 week period)
June 2014 – £658,700.28 (1 week period)
2) The following amounts (exclusive of VAT) have been spent on uniform operational support staff –
January 2014 – £1,082,247 (5 week period)
February 2014 – £1,420,329 (4 week period)
March 2014 – £1,137,834 (4 week period)
April 2014 – £1,249,908 (4 week period)
May 2014 – £2,282,468 (5 week period)
The spend for May 2014 also includes the backdated annual pay rise for eligible workers from 1st April 2014.
3) The following number of clerical agency staff have been utilised –
January 2014 – 1571 (Average headcount)
February 2014 – 1634 (Average headcount)
March 2014 – 1624 (Average headcount)
April 2014 – 1578 (Average headcount)
May 2014 – 1644 (Average headcount)
June 2014 – 1674 (Average headcount)
4) The following number of uniform operational support staff have been utilised –
January 2014 – 697 (Peak worker number)
February 2014 – 845 (Peak worker number)
March 2014 – 867 (Peak worker number)
April 2014 – 853 (Peak worker number)
May 2014 – 855 (Peak worker number)
June 2014 – Peak worker number not available yet.
