To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many agency (a) nurses, (b) medical staff and (c) midwives were employed in each of the last three years, broken down by primary care trust (PCT); and how much each PCT spent (i) in each year and (ii) per agency worker in each category in each such year. (190442)

We do not collect data on the number of agency staff. However data is collected on the cost of agency staff.

Tables have been placed in the Library which show the spend in each primary care trust (PCT) and national health service trust. The data is taken from the NHS trust and PCT financial returns for 2004-05—2006-07. The tables contain spend on non-NHS medical staff; non-NHS nursing midwifery and health visiting staff and the total non-NHS staff spend.

Due to the PCT reorganisation in 2006, data is presented for the old PCT structure for 2004-05 and 2005-06, and the new PCT structure for 2006-07.

Foundation trusts (FTs) do not submit financial returns and therefore are not included, except when they obtained FT status part way through the financial year, in which case data are submitted for the portion of the year before they obtained FT status.

As we do not have data on the number of agency staff, it is not possible to calculate the cost per head of staff.