asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many whole-time equivalent posts there are in the Northern Ireland Civil Service; how many there were in each of the past three years, and how many of the current employees are (a) seconded; (b) temporary; (c) casual; and (d) employed by the Northern Ireland Assembly.[HL6549]
The numbers of whole-time equivalent posts in the 11 Northern Ireland departments and the NIO, including their agencies, for each of the past three years are as follows:
Year 11 Departments Northern Ireland Office ** Total 2004* 28,607 1,622 30,229 2005* 27,836 1,715 29,551 April 2006 26,886 1,849 28,735 * The 2004 and 2005 figures are based on information held by departments at April or September each year. ** NIO figures exclude Home Civil Service staff, PSNI, Youth Justice Agency non-administrative staff, and uniformed Prison Service staff.
The number of employees, as at 1 April 2006, (a) seconded; (b) temporary; (c) casual; and (d) employed by the Northern Ireland Assembly are as follows.
11 Departments Northern Ireland Office Total Seconded 300.1 19 319.1 Temporary 58.7 0 58.7 Casual 637.5 59 696.5 Employed by Northern Ireland Assembly 123.65 6 129.65
For the purpose of this Question, “seconded” means staff seconded to other NICS departments and the Northern Ireland Office, including agencies, as well as to external organisations, but excluding those seconded to the Northern Ireland Assembly. “Temporary” refers to NICS staff employed on fixed-term contracts for a specified duration, and “casual staff” is defined as “a short-term contract lasting no more than 51 weeks”. NICS employees employed by the Northern Ireland Assembly include only those on secondment from the departments/NIO to the Assembly.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
Which major public sector employers in Northern Ireland have imposed a recruitment and promotion freeze pending implementation of the changes proposed in the review of public administration; and why the Northern Ireland Civil Service is exempt from that freeze.[HL6550]
All health and social services boards, trusts and agencies have currently imposed vacancy controls on recruitment of senior executive, general administration, HR, finance, IT, estates, planning and public relations staff. In addition, Enterprise Ulster is in the process of managing a redundancy situation, which includes a freeze on recruitment.
Other major employers are considering the need for vacancy control arrangements to the extent that they are affected by RPA decisions.
The 11 departments of the Northern Ireland Civil Service have been operating vacancy control since the publication of Fit for Purpose in order to implement required reductions in staff numbers without the need for redundancies. These arrangements will also take into account RPA implementation.