HC Deb 27 November 2002 vol 395 c296W
30. Sandra Osborne

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many nurses were employed in Northern Ireland in 1997; and how many now are employed. [81628]

Mr. Browne

Figures for nurses employed in September 1997 and September 2002, along with the corresponding increase in numbers, are given in the following table:

To estimate the number of temporary agency workers, the number reported in the BMG survey was adjusted to reflect the rate of growth in the sector as reported by the Labour Force Survey. We estimated the number of agency workers to be 700,000, around 2.5 per cent. of total employment.

The DTI has not conducted any research as to the possible impact of the EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work in other EU countries.