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Temporary Staff

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many staff the Department employs on a temporary basis through employment agencies; what percentage this is of total staff employed; and how much the Department or its predecessors paid employment agencies to supply temporary staff in (a) 2001–02, (b) 2002–03 and (c) 2003–04 to the most recent date for which figures are available. [158255]

Hilary Benn: DFID has no central record of agency workers employed in either of our two headquarter offices in London and East Kilbride. We have only limited information readily available on the total of agency workers employed, and their respective costs, for the last three financial years. To research and obtain detailed information requested would incur a disproportionate cost to the organisation.

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