§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list in theOfficial Report (a) the number of agency staff employed by health authorities, (b) the number of agency nursing staff employed by health authorities and (c) the number of nursing and midwifery staff employed by health authorities, all in whole-time equivalents, for each quarter from June 1986 until June 1987; and what was the cost to health authorities of employing agency staff for the same period, in £ sterling.
§ Mr. NewtonInformation about the number of agency staff, other than nursing and midwifery staff, employed by health authorities is not collected centrally.
445WThe following table shows the number of nursing and midwifery staff (excluding agency staff) for each quarter from March 1986 and March 1987, inclusive, and the number of agency nursing and midwifery staff over the same period. June 1987 data are not yet available.
NHS directly employed nursing and midwifery staff-—England 1 Whole-time equivalents Staff in post Agency nursing and midwifery staff All nursing and midwifery (excluding agency) staff 31 March 1986 5,790 397,470 30 June 1986 4,970 396,990 30 September 1986 5,450 397,240 31 December 1986 4,150 394,470 31 March 1987 5,600 398,090 Source: DHSS Quarterly Counts of NHS non-medical manpower.
1 All figures are independently rounded to the nearest 10 whole-time equivalents.
The Department collects information on the cost of agency staff to health authorities on a financial year basis only, via the annual accounts. The unaudited summarised accounts of health authorities in England for 1986–87 records total expenditure on the employment of non-National Health Service staff as £150 million.