Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of banning the use of off-framework staffing agencies by the NHS.

The planning guidance for 2024/25 set out the expectation that trusts should end off-framework agency use. The National Health Service is now operating at the lowest levels of off-framework use on record.

The planning guidance for 2025/26 sets out, for the first time, in its Revenue Finance and Contracting Guidance, the ambition of eliminating agency spend altogether, and the expectation that trusts should reduce their agency spend by a minimum of 30% in 2025/26.

The merits of eliminating off-framework agencies would be to increase procurement compliance, value for money, safeguarding measures, workforce productivity, and to provide a ring fence of governance to improve patient safety. A list of approved framework agreements can be found on NHS England’s website, at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/reducing-expenditure-on-nhs-agency-staff-rules-and-price-caps/agency-rules-list-of-approved-framework-agreements-for-all-staff/