Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on external recruitment consultants in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021; how many full time equivalent posts were filled as a result of that expenditure; and how many of those posts were filled by individuals recruited from outside the civil service.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.