The number of support staff directly employed or seconded to each regional assembly in each of the years 2014 to 2017 and to date in 2018

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of support staff directly employed or seconded to each regional assembly in each of the years 2014 to 2017 and to date in 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

My Department is responsible for workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of regional assemblies employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers quarterly data on staff numbers in regional assemblies; however, the data gathered does not provide details in terms of the number of support staff directly employed or seconded to each assembly. Accordingly, the information requested is not available in my Department but may be obtained directly from the regional assemblies.
The total number of staff employed in each regional assembly for the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 is set out below.  Figures for the first quarter of 2018 are being collected at present. In 2014 there were two regional assemblies,  (1) Border, Midland and Western and (2) Southern and Eastern, which were dissolved and replaced in 2015 by 3 new Regional Assemblies, namely  (1) Eastern and Midlands, (2) Northern and Western and (3) Southern.