Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of people employed in the NHS who (a) have a zero-hours contract, for example as a bank staff arrangement as their sole or primary employment with the NHS,
Answer
The information is not held centrally in the form requested.
Verdict: AMBER (70/100) DATA NOT HELD
The reply covers the one item in the question: it states plainly that the requested estimate is not held centrally in the form asked for. That is a complete and honest answer, not an evasion, but it offers no figures or closely related substitute data. A member of the public would learn that the information does not exist in the requested form, though they might want to ask for any partial or alternative data the department does hold.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the department's estimate of the number of people employed in the NHS who have a zero-hours contract, including bank staff arrangements where that is their sole or primary NHS employment? | Data Not Held | Generic | The reply honestly states that the information is not held centrally in the form requested, which addresses the existence of the estimate, but it provides no figures or closely related substitute data, so the explanation of the absence is its only content. |