§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost to his Department was of the use of external consultants in 2002. [90506]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggFor 2001–02 £5.7 million1 was spent on administrative consultancy costs and for 2002–03 £2 million has been spent to date. This figure excludes programme consultancy costs which are currently not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. From April 2003 arrangements will be made to collect centrally expenditure information for programme consultancy costs.
1This figure includes consultancy spend incurred by central functions that subsequently transferred to other Government Departments under Machinery of Government changes.