Recommendation 5

Defra is over-reliant on contractors because it struggles to recruit and retain the people with the digital skills it needs. Defra says it has reduced its reliance on contractors and temporary staff over the last year from 30% to 22%, but this is still too high. CDDO tells us that using some contingent labour is good for flexibility but that it can be up to twice as expensive for some roles. In June 2022, CDDO committed to reducing vacancies in the digital community across government departments to less than 10% by 2025. Between October 2021 and October 2022, Defra ran recruitment campaigns for 244 digital, data and technology roles but could not fill 31% of these roles. In October 2022, 14% of roles in the digital and data community were vacant across government. The digital, data and technology pay framework has helped to attract digital staff, and Defra expects forthcoming changes to the framework to help further. Defra has found that being able to offer home- and hybrid-working can make it easier to recruit staff. In addition, people often join Defra because they are committed to improving the environment and we encourage Defra to continue to capitalise on this. Tackling Defra’s ageing digital services 7 Recommendation 5: As part of the Treasury Minute response, Defra should: a) explain what new approaches it will adopt to recruit staff and reduce its reliance on contractors and temporary staff to provide digital skills; b) specify what target it is working towards for the appropriate level of contractors and temporary staff and when it expects to achieve it.