Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department has spent on (a) consultants, (b) temporary staff and (c) contingent labour in each of the last five years; how many people have been so employed; what the length of contract of each such person was; and what equivalent civil service salary band each was on.

Expenditure incurred by the Home Department and its agencies on consultants,
temporary staff and contingent labour in the last five years is published
annually in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, copies of which are
held in the House Library and available from these links.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2013-to-2014
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2012-to-2013
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2011-to-2012
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ho-annual-report-and-accounts-2010-to-2011
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-resource-accounts-2009-to-2010
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/247694/0193.pdf

The Department did not separately account for Agency Staff (Temporary Workers)
in these years as the costs associated with this category are included in the
overall Contingent Labour figures.

Spend on contingent and consultancy labour has decreased significantly overall
since 09/10.

The Department engages Temporary Staff at AA, AO, EO, HEO and SEO equivalent
Grades, the vast majority at the AA to EO grades. Contractors are engaged in
grade equivalents EO to SCS PB1 with the vast majority at SEO and G6/7.

The Department buys consultancy as a service and therefore does not engage
consultants individually.

To provide details of contract durations and equivalent grades would require
analysis of individual contracts and disparate datasets, the time taken to
undertake this task would incur disproportionate cost.