Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff their Department has seconded from Hakluyt since July 2024.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Secondments are one way of bringing talent and experience into the Civil Service for short periods of time and have been used by successive governments. Secondments are arranged at a business unit level, which is also where the data is held.
There have been no staff working in the department since July 2024 who were seconded from Hakluyt.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff her Department has seconded from Palantir since July 2024.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There have been no staff working in the department since July 2024 who were seconded from Palantir.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much their Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The exact information requested is not readily held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in (i) 2020, (i) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department is not able to separate data for ministers and civil servants. Therefore, this data covers all Department and Departmental Arm’s Length Bodies colleagues.
The Department spent the following on first class rail travel:
First class travel can be booked in exceptional circumstances if one or more of the following applies:
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department spent on taxi cabs for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The amounts spent by the Department on taxi travel for the requested financial years are:
These are the full amounts for both ministers and civil servants. The Department only has total figures readily available and so does not have the split for ministers and civil servants.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The department does not separate the costs of agency workers, contingent labour, or any associated agency retainer fees in our accounts. A breakdown could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The cost of contingent labour (including agency workers) is published in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts (ARA), and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports. Figures for the 2021/22 financial year are included, although the audit is still ongoing and this value may be subject to change.
The figures below cover the entirety of the Departmental Group, including Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies, for the years specified:
Financial Year | Contingent Labour & Agency Fees (£ million) |
2019/20 | £30.8 million |
2020/21 | £32.5 million |
2021/22 (subject to audit) | £39.2 million |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The exact information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the wage ratio was between the highest paid member of staff in his Department and the lowest in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The department’s wage ratio, based on gross basic salary only, on 1 April each year (the date when any pay award is implemented) is as follows:
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022; and what the name is of each consultancy contracted.
Answered by Will Quince
The department spent the following amounts on consultancy in the respective financial years:
* Unaudited. As a result, this value may change.
Within the time and value for money considerations applicable, it has been possible to provide an analysis of the 2021/22 value, by supplier. This analysis is attached.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many contracts that are worth (a) between £1 million and £3 million and (b) over £3 million their (i) Department and (ii) Department’s agencies and non-departmental public bodies (A) have agreed since 2010 and (B) are due to agree within the next 12 months; how much their Department has spent on monitoring each contract in each year since 2010; and how many officials have been working on that monitoring in each year since 2010.
Answered by Will Quince
Details of government contracts from 2016 above £10,000, and £25,000 in the wider public sector, are published on the GOV.UK Contracts Finder site which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. As Contracts Finder was implemented in 2016, not all records before this time are held centrally.
For the July 2022 to June 2023 period, the total anticipated number of contracts for the department only (not including agencies and non-departmental public bodies) worth between £1 and £3 million is currently three. For the same period, the total number of contracts over £3 million is 136. This is the anticipated project pipeline and the department makes no commitment that the annual value of any contract will be as stated, or the timing of any future procurement exercises will be as stated. The sourcing route for any subsequent procurement has not been determined. For example, it could be via frameworks managed by Crown Commercial Services or open competitions. The department cannot therefore guarantee that these opportunities will be available to all suppliers.
We do not hold spend data on contract monitoring or how many officials work on monitoring in each year from 2010.