§ Mr. Sean HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the cost to his Department of employing(a) computer consultants and (b) management consultants, for each financial year from 1983 to date.
§ Mr. MellorExpenditure by the Department of Health and Social Security on computer and management consultancy in 1983–84 was £3.623 million. We cannot apportion this accurately between the two Departments or between computer and management consultancy.
The estimated expenditure on health-related computer and management consultancy in 1984–85 was £0.613 million. It is not possible to separately identify the cost of computer consultancy.
The estimated expenditure from 1985–86 onwards on fees and expenses for computer and management consultants on health matters is as follows:
Computer consultants £ million Management consultants £ million 1985–86 0.880 0.479 1986–87 2.067 2.103 1987–88 1.950 1.244 1988–89 1.792 1.584 The figures are approximate since expenditure up to and including the 1988–89 year was from a joint health and social security budget. In some cases expenditure has been apportioned where consultants have been engaged on both health and social security matters. The figures for management consultancy include social services consultancy and some computer consultancy where these cannot be identified separately.