To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, pursuant to AQW 43571/11-15, to detail the pressures felt by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust that results in expenditure on agency nurses to be £5m, 2200 per cent higher than the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in 2013/14.

The use of agency staff is a necessary requirement to ensure a flexible, responsive mechanism to sustain safe and effective service delivery.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has stated that the Trust uses agency staff to complement their workforce, primarily to cover short-term vacancies arising from sickness or maternity leave absence, or where there is a temporary increase in demand for which recurrent funding is not available to make additional permanent appointments, for example, the surge in unscheduled care demand in winter.

Reasons for agency use across Trusts will vary and expenditure on agency staff will fluctuate in line with service needs. BHSCT employ the majority of nursing and midwifery staff across the region, 34% (6,177wte) against 15-18% for the other Trusts. It should therefore be expected that their use of agency staff will be higher than for the other Trusts.