Asked by: Pamela Nash (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many staff in the Law Officers' Departments and its executive agencies and associated bodies were engaged off-payroll in each of the last five years up to the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The information requested is contained in the following tables.
The table below shows the average number of staff engaged off-payroll over the past five years by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI), and the Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol).
Tsol, AGO and HMCPSI - Average number of staff engaged off-payroll1 | |
Period | Average Headcount |
April 2014 – February 2015 | 263 |
April 2013 – March 2014 | 197 |
April 2012 – March 2013 | 127 |
April 2011 – March 2012 | 91 |
April 2010 – March 2011 | 103 |
1 Off payroll staff includes temporary (agency) and contract staff, including lawyers, other professionals and administrators. None of the above mentioned staff members are civil servants. The majority are temporary staff engaged through employment agencies to cover short term vacancies and to secure specific specialist legal and support skills.
Prior to April 2014 the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) did not maintain a centralised record of staff employed off-payroll and it is not possible to provide information at the level of detail requested. The SFO can, however, provide an average number of temporary staff employed since April 2010. These figures are as follows:
SFO - Average number of temporary staff engaged off-payroll | |
Period | Average Headcount |
April 2013 – March 2014 | 35 |
April 2012 – March 2013 | 29 |
April 2011 – March 2012 | 51 |
April 2010 – March 2011 | 98 |
At the end of December January 2015 there were 86 temporary staff working at the SFO.
The average number of staff in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who were engaged off-payroll during each of the last five years up to the most recent period for which figures are available is shown in the table below.
CPS - Average number of temporary staff engaged off-payroll1 | |
Period | Average Headcount |
April 2014 – January 2015 | 7.7 |
April 2013 – March 2014 | 6 |
April 2012 – March 2013 | 1.9 |
April 2011 – March 2012 | 5.1 |
April 2010 – March 2011 | 20 |
1 The figures in the table have been calculated by taking relevant workforce statistics published each month and deriving an average for each financial year. It is possible, therefore, that the number of unique individuals employed during any financial year was higher than that indicated.