HC Deb 26 January 1993 vol 217 cc602-3W
Mr. Hanson

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will give details of the cost per job created in the civil service by the use of Recruitment and Assessment Services in Basingstoke.

Mr. Robert Jackson

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the chief executive of Recruitment and Assessment Services. I have asked him to write in reply.

Letter from Michael D. Geddes to Mr. David Hanson, dated 25 January 1993: I have been asked to reply to your recent question to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster enquiring about the cost per job created through the use of this Agency. I assume that you are referring to the cost per vacancy filled. It is not possible to give a precise answer to your question as RAS provides a wide range of recruitment and related services. In some cases we prepare only further particulars of a post and place an advertisement; in other cases we provide a full service including perhaps an individual assessment service or a full-scale Assessment Centre. Departments and the Civil Service Commissioners are not required to use the services of RAS. We negotiate an agreed price for each particular project which we undertake which reflects the amount of work requested by the customer department. In 1991/92 we processed more than 100,000 applications as well as over 150,000 general enquiries. We filled 2,989 vacancies through the provision of comprehensive recruitment schemes (Many of which were for multiple vacancies) and participated in one way or another in a further 66 partial schemes. We also provided 803 consultancy days. The total cost of the Agency, including overheads, was £11.9 million. Statistics for the current year will be given in our 1992/93 Annual Report, which will be published in the middle of the year. I hope that this provides you with the information which you require, but please let me know if you would like any further details.