Interim needs drive DWP recruitment agency spend

The vast majority of recruitment agency spending at the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) goes on interims, an answer to a parliamentary question reveals.
Fri, 5 Jul 2013
The vast majority of recruitment agency spending at the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) goes on interims, an answer to a parliamentary question reveals.
Mike Freer, the MP for Finchley and Golders Green, asked the DWP how much it had spent on recruitment agencies, outplacement agencies and staff training in the past 12 months.

Parliamentary record Hansard shows a total of £17.44m spent in the 12 months to the end of May 2013, of which £16.99m was on interims, with the remaining £452k spent on permanent hires.

Employment minister Mark Hoban, answering for the DWP, notes that "These workers are engaged where we do not have available skilled resource in- house, mainly in specialist roles such as project management and IT”.

“All central recruitment is authorised only in exceptional circumstances and is subject to ministerial approval.”

Freer also asked the same question of the Department for Transport, although the answer did not split money spent into permanent and interim fees. The total was £337k.


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