John Healey (Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government; Wentworth, Labour)

The information is as follows:

Homes and Communities Agency

The board appointments recruitment processes for the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and the Tenants Service Authority (TSA) were to some extent run in combination and it is not possible to break these costs down further between the two organisations or the individual members. The total amounts spent were:

The Department hired a Human Resources expert on a consultancy basis to advise on and oversee the entire recruitment process for both the HCA and TSA chairs, board members and the TSA chief executive. The cost of this expert was £89,000. It is not possible to break down this cost further between the agencies or across the various individual appointments he was involved in.

For the recruitment of the HCA chair, the cost of hiring a recruitment agency, including advertising costs, was £58,000. The cost of engaging an independent assessor was £876.

Recruitment of board members for the HCA and the TSA was run as a joint exercise. The cost of the recruitment agency including advertising and expenses was £79,000. The cost cannot be broken down between HCA and TSA or between individual board members. The cost of engaging an independent assessor was £3,499 and again cannot be split between the HCA and TSA or between individual appointments.

National Housing and Planning Unit

The total amount spent on recruitment of the Board of the National Housing and Planning Unit was £94,535, of which £91,300 was incurred on recruitment agency fees, and £3,235 on engaging an Independent Appointments Assessor. It is not possible to breakdown these costs further to identify amounts which specifically related to the recruitment of individuals, as the process was conducted as a total recruitment package for a Board of five Members and one Chairperson.