Request

Hello, Please consider this a request for some information under the freedom of information act. I would like to know the total number of people who have worked in procurement roles across the NHS, over the past five years. This information will be held in the electronic staff record. For the purpose of this request, “procurement roles” includes (but is not limited to) people who work in procurement, supply chain management, category management, clinical functions within procurement departments, and other similar roles. Please break this information down for me in the following ways:

1. The total number of people who work in procurement roles at the local level (subdivided by commissioner and provider) from financial year 2017/18 to financial year 2021/22
2. The total number of people who work in procurement roles at the regional level from financial year 2017/18 to 2021/22
3. The total number of people who work in procurement roles at the national level from financial year 2017/18 to 2021/22 a. On this final point, please can you differentiate between people who work for NHS England and Improvement, and any other arms-length body such as NHS Supply Chain? I would like this information sent to me electronically, in an Excel compatible format, to the address associated with this request.

Response

Procurement Roles in the NHSBSA

I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority currently has 25 procurement roles. Unfortunately, we do not hold information on the number broken down by year as requested. The number of roles/colleagues in procurement roles may change over time as staff join/leave the organisation meaning there is no static figure held for any given year.

Wider NHS including Arm’s Length Bodies and NHS Supply Chain

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested regarding procurement roles in the wider NHS is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. Although the NHSBSA supports the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system, it is not the controller of the information held within the system, other than for information relating to roles within the NHSBSA itself. Responsibility for NHS employer information, including responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sits with each employer. The NHSBSA is not authorised to locate, retrieve or extract information held within ESR relating to each NHS employer, for the purpose of responding to FOI requests.

I have provided contact details for the organisations named in your request. I have also supplied a link to a directory which lists most NHS organisations. Please contact them individually for the information you require.

NHS England

NHS England PO Box 16738 Redditch B97 9PT

Telephone 0300 311 22 33

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

Web http://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/foi/

NHS Supply Chain

Supply Chain Coordination Limited 200 Lichfield Lane Mansfield NG18 4RG

E-Mail: foi@supplychain.nhs.uk

Other NHS Organisations

https://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/pages/nhstrustlisting.aspx

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2022” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.