424 UK Councils Spent £1,768 Million On Agency And Temporary Staff In 2006/07

Across the UK 424 district, county and borough councils spent a total, £1,747,594,000 employing agency and temporary staff in 2006/07 according to a new report published at the GMB Congress which began this morning in Plymouth. The report will be debated at the Public Services section Conference on Tuesday 10^th June.

The report shows that the top spenders on agency and temporary staff in the UK were as follows- set out alphabetically with notes to make clear what is included, see notes to editor at the bottom:

These figures from the councils themselves are in a report compiled by GMB, Britain’s general union, using the Freedom of Information Act. 31 councils did not reply to the GMB question. The figures for each of the UK regions are shown below. The figures for councils in each region are on the GMB website at the foot of this national release in separate regional releases. http://www.gmb.org.uk/

Brian Strutton GMB National Secretary for the Public Services Section speaking today at the GMB Congress in Plymouth said “424 UK councils spent £1.7 billion of tax payer’s money employing temporary agency and temporary staff in 2006/07. This is a horrific abuse of the public purse.

The point is that this is more than just filling in gaps. On this scale it is a deliberate scam. Too many councils are using cheap temps when they should be recruiting permanent staff who can be properly trained and given the experience that is necessary to provide quality local services to the public.”

GMB Congress will call on Councillors across the land to get a grip on this out of control spending. GMB have experience of how this can be done and we are willing to enter into discussions to achieve this result.”

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Contact: Brian Strutton on 07860 606 137/0208 947 3131, Rose Conroy GMB Press Officer on 07974 251 823, Steve Pryle GMB Press Officer on 07921 289 880.

Notes to Editors:

1. The figures for each region of the UK are shown in the regional press releases at the foot of the national press release on this subject on the GMB website http://www.gmb.org.uk/

2. These are the footnotes referred to in the alphabetical table above.

[1] agency only

[2] agency only

[3] April - December 2007 (11 months)

[4] 2005-2006

[5] excludes employers pension and NI contributions, includes seasonal staff

[6] agency only including supply teachers

[7] includes some fixed term contracts over 12 months, schools and other non-corporate expenditure

[8] agency only

[9] 2007-2008, including on-costs. The agency figure of £14,599,000 excludes the Housing Revenue Account but includes the cost of placements by Cardiff Works, the council's own staffing agency.

[10] temporary staff figure of £42.56 m is for 2007/08

[11] including school temporary staff but not supply teachers from agencies

[12] temporary staff only

[13] All PAYE temporary workers and all management- and executive-level interims, both PAYE and limited companies. The figure excludes supply teachers

[14] gross pay for temporary jobs

[15] approximate figures for temporary staff and there may be some overlap

[16] agency only

[17] agency only

[18] 2007-2008

[19] agency only

[20] fixed term contract figure of £1,082,738 is for 2007-2008

[21] agency only

[22] agency only

[23] agency only

[24] agency only

[25] agency only

[26] temporary staff figure of £7,817,000 for 2007-2008, agency staff figure includes schools

[27] 2007/08 - the temporary staff figures of £9,437,000 includes all temporary employees, including those over 12 months

[28] includes an estimate for 2007-2008 for fixed term contracts of £2,900,000 (including on-costs)

[29] 2007/08