Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information he holds on how many members of staff of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have left to take up jobs or positions in the independent healthcare sector in (a) each year since 2010 and (b) 2014 to date.

No information is held about the intended work destinations of civil servants from the graded structure (grades AO to G6) leaving the Department to work in other organisations.

However, for Senior Civil Servants (SCS), the SCS unit in the Department’s human resources section does hold the information presented in the table below. “The independent healthcare sector” is interpreted to mean private sector healthcare companies that are contracted by the National Health Service in the provision of healthcare or in the support of the provision of healthcare. The following table sets out the numbers of individuals who have sought approval to take up jobs or positions in the independent healthcare sector in each financial year since 2009-10 and in the financial year 2014 to date.

The Department does not hold the information requested centrally in respect of its executive agencies and executive non-departmental public bodies. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) does not hold data on the destination of leavers from its predecessor body prior to 1 April 2013. In 2013-14, three of its leavers indicated that they were going to take up jobs in the private healthcare sector. The Department’s executive agencies and other executive non-departmental public bodies do not hold this information.