To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, column 1746W, on departmental recruitment, what estimate he has made of the annual salary cost of (a) permanent, (b) temporary and (c) agency staff recruited by his Department in each year since 2005-06. (264299)

The information requested is as follows:

(a) (i) The estimated annual salary costs for permanent staff recruited by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) , including staff recruited on fixed term contracts of employment of one year or more, in each of the last four financial years is as follows:

These are not the actual pay costs of the staff recruited but have been calculated using the numbers recruited given in the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, column 1746W, and the average salary, employers national insurance and employers pension contribution rates for the relevant financial years.

(a) (ii) The annual salary costs for permanent staff recruited by FCO Services, including staff recruited on fixed term contracts of employment of one year or more, in each of the last four financial years is as follows:

These costs have been calculated on the same basis as at (a) (i).

(b) It is difficult to identify the individual costs of temporary staff, who may work irregular hours, and this could be done only at disproportionate cost. The total FCO costs for temporary staff, including those recruited in-year and reported in the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, column 1746W, for the four financial years were:

The figure for 2008-09 is projected using the expenditure for the first three quarters.

(c) Total FCO costs for agency staff in the four financial years were:

The figure for 2008-09 is projected using the expenditure for the first three quarters.