§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many unfilled vacancies for permanent staff his Department has; what percentage of staff positions in his Department are vacant; what the monthly cost would be to his Department of employing civil servants in these positions; how many and what percentage of staff his Department employs on a temporary basis through employment agencies; how much his Department paid employment agencies to supply temporary staff in each of the last 12 months; and how much he expects to pay employment agencies to supply temporary staff in each of the next 12 months. [131438]
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§ Mr. Chris Smith[holding answer 25 July 2000]: My Department currently has a total of 30 of unfilled permanent vacancies, this equates to 7.5 per cent. of total staff. These posts have been advertised around Whitehall and to date 10 successors have been identified to fill the posts. The table shows the numbers of vacant posts by grade and monthly costs.
£ Grade Posts vacant Average monthly salary costs per member of staff A 2 3,846 B 15 2,555 C 5 1,897 D(U) 6 1,565 D 2 1,264 Since July 1999 my Department has employed an average of 16 agency staff each month at administrative and secretarial level, this equates to 4 per cent. of total staff. The monthly costs are as follows:
Date £ 1999: July 67,573 August 56,171 September 43,712 October 51,143 November 34,128 December 30,514 2000: January 31,486 February 27,059 March 35,479 April 29,980 May 28,744 June 23,774 The number of agency staff employed fluctuate according to demand. The hourly rate for agency staff costs are due to increase by an average of 72p per hour for 2001.