§ Mr. FatchettTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the private consultants employed by his Department in each of the last five years; what projects they were involved with; and what was the total cost in each year.
§ Mr. FreemanThe Department's central contracts branch has placed in excess of 500 contracts with consultants in each of the last few years. In addition to this figure, consultancy contracts are placed as part of specific projects and as low value orders of under £10,000. Under the Department's arrangements for the delegation of contractual authority, such contracts are placed without reference to the central contracts branch and so cannot be identified separately.
In view of this and the large number of centrally placed contracts involved over the last 15 years, an answer to this question could be provided only at disproportionate cost and effort.
§ Mr. FatchettTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will(a) list those consultancy contracts awarded by his Department's central contracts branch in each year since 1989 and (b) list the purpose of each individual contract.
§ Mr. FreemanThis information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.