The Department of Finance has signed off a £1bn contract with The UK Recruitment Co Ltd to supply temporary agency workers across Northern Ireland's public sector.

The deal covers the provision of temporary Agency workers for the Northern Ireland Civil Service, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies, split across nine lots. The notice states the contract is for the "provision of temporary Agency workers" for participating bodies listed in the accompanying specification.

The award was made on 2026-06-23 and the notice was published on 2026-06-29.

Suppliers already active in public sector recruitment, and workforce teams inside Northern Ireland's civil service and its agencies, will want to note the scale of the deal and its nine-lot structure. With the award notice now published, the next step for the market is watching how call-offs against each lot are managed, though no further bidding stage is indicated in this notice.