To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total cost was of (a) salaries for permanent civil service posts, (b) salaries for permanent non-civil service posts and (c) payments to temporary or agency workers in his Department in each month since May 2005.

The information requested is as follows:

(a) Permanent civil service posts

The total payments made to civil service permanent personnel in each year since May 2005 is as follows:

2005-06 April to March is £2,302.33 million;

2006-07 April to March is £2,265.63 million;

2007-08 April to March is £2,221.01 million.

These figures have been estimated for 2007-08 as the actuals are not yet available.

The monthly breakdown year is as follows:

(b) Permanent non-civil service posts

The Department employs 17 non-executive directors to provide an oversight to a number of business units including the Departmental Board. The total salaries paid for 2007-08 were £334,606.16.

(c) Payments to temporary or agency workers

The total payments made to agencies to provide interim personnel in each year since May 2005 is as follows:

2005-06 April to March is £52.99 million;

2006-07 April to March is £61.98 million;

2007-08 April to March is £37.02 million.

The Department employs temporary staff "casuals" for short periods; they are recruited direct not by an agency.

These figures have been estimated for 2007-08 as the actuals are not yet available.

The monthly breakdown for temporary workers—non-agency staff—is as follows:

The monthly breakdown for temporary workers—agency staff—is as follows:

A monthly breakdown of information is not available for the period prior to April 2007 and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

The following special points should be noted.

The total spend figures are the total paid to agencies for the supply of interim personnel (agency workers). This includes the fees paid directly to the interim personnel and also the fees paid to the agencies for their supply. The agency payments are normally based on a percentage mark-up and are variable depending on the agency and the category of personnel supplied. The average margin for all supply categories utilising the Department's primary supply vehicle, the CIPHER framework agreement, is 15 per cent.

The total spend figures have been obtained from a number of sources including the Department's Financial and Resource Management systems and it should be noted that the figures are based on current account codes and category descriptors and may include some miscellaneous non-interim personnel expenditure because of the difficulty in categorising. The figures for 2007-08 have only recently been extracted and are subject to further validation.