Recommendation 19

Our first report on NHST&T concluded that it was overly reliant on expensive contractors and temporary staff. We found that by October 2020, it had signed 407 contracts worth £7 billion with 217 public and private organisations. By the end of December 2020, this had risen to over 600 contracts. We recommended that NHST&T should put 36 Qq 170–174, 178 ; C&AG’s Report, para 21 37 Qq 172–173, C&AG’s Report, para 21, 4.18 38 Q 154; C&AG;s Report para 8, 1.13–1.14 39 Q 119; C&AG’s report para 2.19 40 Qq 119, 154, C&AG’s Report, para 8, 1.13, 1.14 41 Q 40 42 Q 154 16 Test and Trace update in place a clear workforce plan and recruitment strategy which aimed to significantly reduce its reliance on consultants and temporary staff. As part of our previous inquiry, the Department assured us that it had plans in place to reduce NHST&T’s use of external consultants, but that this was dependent on the availability of civil service recruits to fill posts and on future demand for test and trace services.43 Despite this, NHST&T employed more consultants in April 2021 (2,239) than in December 2020 (2,164). As of April 2021, consultants accounted for nearly half of all NHST&T’s central staff.44