Departmental Staff

Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his Department's annual budget is for employing workers on a consultancy basis; and how much of this budget was used in each of the last five years for which records are available.

Mrs. McGuire
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) do not set annual budgets for employing workers on a consultancy basis at departmental level.

Expenditure for the last five years for employing workers on a consultancy basis is shown in the following table:

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|       |£ million|
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|2001-02|94.46    |
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|2002-03|141.04   |
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|2003-04|306.72   |
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|2004-05|168.37   |
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|2005-06|130.29   |
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Dr. Pugh
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of staff employed in the top five grades of his Department have (a) a graduate qualification in IT and (b) previous employment as an IT specialist.

Mrs. McGuire
The answer is in the following table:

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|                                                        |Percentage|
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|DWP SCS who have graduate qualifications in IT          |9         |
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|DWP SCS who have previous employment as an IT specialist|13        |
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