Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much his Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.

The Department’s Agency Staff spend is published annually in BEIS Annual Report and Accounts here under note 3 ‘Staff costs’. Agency spend is shown as financial years in the ‘Wages and Salaries’ line under the ‘Others’ column, representing non-permanent core BEIS staff. Annual spend on Agency spend is not held centrally and can only be obtained disproportionally.

Spend relating to financial year 2021-22 will be published later this year. BEIS Annual Report and Accounts are laid in Parliament once they have been certified by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG).

We do not pay agency retainers as our policy is only to use Crown Commercial Framework contracts.