To ask the Minister of Finance and Personnel to detail the total number of (i) temporary agency staff and (ii) temporary contract workers hired by the Northern Ireland Civil Service for each financial year between 2008 and 2015, broken down by Department.

(i) I refer you to the response previously given to AQW 46568/11-15 which provides an answer to this question.

(ii) Information on the number of temporary contract workers in the NICS is not held. The term 'temporary contract workers' refers to the staff who work on specific contracts tendered by departments. Departments would have two main types of services contract; i) a contract to satisfy a specific one-off (i.e. temporary) business need (i.e. professional services; ad-hoc maintenance services etc); or ii) contracts for recurring services (e.g. cleaning; security guarding etc).

Contracts for specific one-off services would mostly be undertaken by a team of individuals dedicating hours/days to specific activities. Temporary contract workers are not employees of the NICS and are supplied under contract by a Contractor to perform specific services. These contracts are not generally performed on NICS properties. The number of staff (or inputs) would never be recorded or captured. The overall objective of the contract would be to measure the outcomes of the contract (i.e. whether the contract was delivered on time and to the appropriate standard) as opposed to measuring the inputs (number of contract staff).