57821 (2024). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister of Corrections

57821 (2024). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister of Corrections: How many contractors, if any, did the Minister's departments have on 9 September 2024; and how many of them, if any, were former employees of the department that lost their roles or resigned from their roles since 27 November 2023?

Hon Mark Mitchell: Corrections is one of New Zealand’s largest core agencies, employing nearly 10,000 staff. The majority of Corrections’ workforce are full time employees deployed in frontline roles across 17 Corrections-managed prisons and many more Community Corrections sites across New Zealand. The remaining staff in back-office roles enable frontline staff to carry out their role by providing support. I am advised that Corrections follows the guidance published by the Public Service Commission when engaging external resources. Corrections’ policy on engaging external consultants and contractors requires that internal options are considered first and contractors are only engaged when this is not viable or practicable. Where there is an assessed need for further resources, it is in some cases reasonable and cost-efficient to contract staff, particularly when the existing workforce does not have the specialist skills or capabilities that may be required. Corrections reports information about contractors, including project, contract start and end dates, and spend, in a consistent manner each year through Select Committee processes. This information, as at 31 March 2024, can be viewed on page 53 at https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/54SCJUST_EVI_340e6d7e-25ad-4bcf-02dc-08dc87b3b9bf_JUST13866/ae533852e454960f891949cc766935dfe1397446 I am further advised that while work is ongoing to enable Corrections to report these figures, due to current system limitations, to accurately provide the number of contractors as at 9 September 2024 and 27 November 2023, would involve substantial collation and manual analysis as this information is not centrally recorded. I am not prepared to ask my officials to carry out this task for the purposes of this response. However, Corrections has assured me that none of its contractors as at 9 September 2024 were former employees that had lost or resigned from their roles since 27 November 2023. This is also my response to WPQ 57822 (2024).