To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many additional station staff Network Rail has hired during the covid-19 outbreak; at what (a) locations, (b) job grades and (c) salaries; and whether those staff have been employed (i) on a temporary or permanent basis and (ii) directly or via a recruitment agency.

There are currently 1011 Network Rail staff working at the 20 stations it is responsible for managing. This is an increase of 45 from 23 March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Of these 1011 staff, 982 are employed on permanent contracts and 29 have been employed on fixed term or contingent contracts.

The number of contingent staff deployed at Network Rail's stations has fluctuated throughout the course of the pandemic. The number of contingent agency staff deployed at Network Rail's stations peaked in May / June 2020 at approximately 500, when additional customer assurance was provided following the relaxation of Covid restrictions and timetable changes at that time. The salaries of agency staff is held by the agencies.

The table in the attached document sets out a comparison of staff numbers at Network Rail managed stations between March 2020 and July 2021. This is broken down by location.

Staff numbers at Network Rail (docx, 18.6KB)