Sections:
Freedom of Information Act 2000, request no. F2007/079
Date of release: 18 June 2007
Private Healthcare for Staff
The number of staff on DFID’s payroll and of those, the number receiving free or subsidised private healthcare.
There are currently 1773 home-civil service staff on DFID's payroll, plus another 838 staff appointed locally in our overseas offices. None of these have any entitlement to free or subsidised private health insurance as part of their conditions of employment. For Home Civil Servants (UK-based staff) working overseas we will reimburse any medical costs in excess of those which they would have been incurred through the NHS in the UK. Where state-provided overseas health services are of poor quality, health insurance schemes are sometimes included in the contract package for locally engaged staff, but in these cases, salary levels are reduced commensurately and so the insurance is neither free nor subsidised.