§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what use his Department has made of executive search agencies in filling vacancies within his Department and executive agencies administered by his Department during the last year; and how much these services have cost his Department.
§ Mr. HowardExecutive search consultants are used in making appointments to public bodies where it is thought that they will be able to supplement usefully the field of applicants.
Since January 1994 consultants have been used in a scheme to fill the post of prisons ombudsman and are currently being used to assist in recruiting a director of personnel for the Prison Service.
For reasons of commercial confidentiality it is not our practice to disclose individual contract values. However, the combined value of the two contracts is £44,000 excluding VAT.