Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money NHS trusts have spent on agency and contract staff in (a) each year since 2010-11 and (b) 2017-18 to date; and how much each NHS trusts plans to so spend in 2018-19.

Total figures for agency expenditure are available for National Health Service secondary care in England for each year from 2013-14 to 2016-17 but not before it.

NHS secondary care figures are in the following table:

A number of measures have been introduced by the Secretary of State to bring secondary care agency spending under control including price caps, procurement frameworks and expenditure ceilings. These have contributed to the NHS spending around £700 million less on agency in 2016/17 than in the previous financial year.

Trust agency expenditure at Month 9 (Q3) in 2017/18 was at £1,779 million, with the forecast outturn at £2,363 million (for the end of 2017/18). This represented a £108 million or 5.7% underspend against the planned ceiling and is £441 million or 20% lower than the comparable period last year.

Planning for 2018/19 trust spending targets is ongoing. Therefore, this information cannot be provided at this stage.