Question to the Home Office:

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

Agency workers, more commonly referred to as contingent labour or temporary workers, are subject to a Cabinet Office controls framework to ensure robust governance of spending in this area. See:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/contingent-labour-spend-control

The Home Office does hold information on contingent labour spending and reports this in the Annual Report and Accounts by financial year (April to March).

You can refer to the links and pages below for the available published information that relates to contingent labour costs:

Pages 107-108 of the 2021-22 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts

Home_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Pages 99-101 of the 2020-21 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts

HO annual report and accounts 2020-21 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Pages 88-89 of the 2019-20 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts

Home Office annual report and accounts 2019 - 2020 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

We have interpreted your reference to agency retainer fees as the fees charged at the commencement of the provision of a search recruitment service; this is only applicable when recruiting for a permanent or fixed term post.

Agency retainer fees are not applicable to the contingent labour market. The Home Office does not pay agency retainer fees.