To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many healthcare support workers have been employed in the NHS at Agenda for Change level (a) five, (b) four, (c) three, (d) two and (e) one since 1997; what the annual change in staff has been at each level; and what the forecast annual change is over the next 10 year period. (77085)

Assimilation to the agenda for change pay system has recently been completed with just under 99 per cent. of staff on the new system by the end of March. Data are not collected centrally on the number of staff in each band, but the computer aided job evaluation system can provide data on the frequency with which particular types of job have assimilated to the various pay bands.

Health care support worker is not a commonly used job title. In the case of nursing health care assistants, which are the largest group of support worker, the data show that there have been 12,694 nursing health care assistant matches to band two, 9,255 to band three and 365 to band four. There have been no matches to band five.

Planned changes in staff numbers in jobs at different levels are determined locally.