The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has made 1,000 hires since the start of the year, despite a recruitment freeze having been in place since May 2010.

Across the DWP, its agencies and executive non-departmental public bodies, 1,064 hires have been made, the vast majority (853) coming in the first quarter of 2013.

Operations accounted for 595 of the 1,064 roles, while 142 of the new arrivals were at the Pensions Regulator, 115 at Remploy, 106 in the DWP Corporate Centre and 57 staff at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

These are shown in a DWP ‘transparency data’ release this week. The news comes after employment minister Mark Hoban, in a parliamentary written answer, confirmed that the DWP had spent a total of £17.44m on recruitment agencies in the 12 months to the end of May 2013, with 97% of this relating to interim recruitment needs.

The DWP tells recruiter.co.uk it currently employs 103,691 people.

A Cabinet Office document from April 2012 notes that the public sector recruitment freeze, in place since the coalition government formed after the 2010 general election, has seen external recruitment drop to 70%.

Organisations have a number of options for overriding the recruitment freeze, including the provision to replace staff who have been dismissed for poor performance or poor attendance through external recruitment, without requiring additional approval, the document notes.

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