Consultants (Hansard, 16 May 1994)

§ Mr. Eggar

[holding answer 29 April 1994]: I have asked the chief executives of the agencies to reply to this question, as it falls into the category of day-to-day operational matters.

Letter from Mike Hoddinott to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: Your recent Parliamentary Question to the President of the Board of Trade asked how many consultancy contracts have been let by the Department's executive agencies in the last five years; and at what cost. Details in respect of Accounts Services Agency are as follows:

Contracts	Number	Cost in £'000
1989–90	1	21
1990–91	0	0
1991–92	0	0
1992–93	34	248
1993–94	19	164

301W

The costs for each year include VAT although Account Services Agency had separate VAT registration for the years 1992–93 and 1993–94.

Letter from David Durham to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: You tabled the following Parliamentary Question: To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his Answer of 24th March, Official Report, columns 428–9, how many consultancy contracts have been let by his Department's executive agencies in the last five years; and at what cost. I have been asked to reply to this question, as Chief Executive of Companies House Executive Agency. The following information is, of course, only relevant to this Agency. The number of consultancy contracts let and the costs involved were as follows:

	Number	Cost £
1993–94	20	147,271
1992–93	23	205,075
1991–92	17	231,653

The cost of consultancy in 1990–91 was £283,441. Because of changes to our financial systems in 1991, I regret that the precise numbers of contracts before 1991–92, or their cost before 1990–91, is not readily available.

I hope this information is helpful.

Letter from Peter Joyce to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: The President of the Board of Trade has asked me to reply to your Question about contracts let by The Insolvency Service. Since The Insolvency Service became an Executive Agency in March 1990, eight contracts have been awarded to management consultants at a total cost of £0.33 million. The Service also uses the private sector for advice on, development of and delivery in relation to specialist areas such as training, design and information technology systems.

Letter from R. D. Worswick to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: I have been asked to answer with respect to the Laboratory of the Government Chemist your question to the President of the Board of Trade concerning the cost and number of consultancy contracts let by the Executive Agencies of the Department of Trade and Industry. Over the last five years (up to and including 1993–94) the Laboratory of the Government Chemist has let fourteen consultancy contracts at a total cost of £442,000.

Letter from W. Edgar to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994:

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION NO. 29 To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 24 March, Official Report, columns 428–9, how many consultancy contracts have been let by his Department's executive agencies in the last five years, and at what cost". Over the past five years NEL has let 22 consultancy contracts at a total cost of £360,447. You should note that the above consultancies were in respect of activities such as the development of commercial systems and investigation of new markets for NEL services.

Letter from P. B. Clapham to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: I am writing in response to your question to the President of the Board of Trade about the number and cost of consultancy contracts which have been let by his Department's Executive Agencies during the last five years. 302W The total number of external consultancies let by the National Physical Laboratory during the period was 82. The total cost was £1,472,325 excluding VAT. I hope this provides the information need.

Letter from Seton Bennett to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: Parliamentary question: Consultancy contracts I have been asked to reply, in respect of this Agency, to your recent question to the President of the Board of Trade concerning consultancy contracts let in the last five years. The Number of consultancy contracts let by the National Weights and Measures Laboratory between April 1989 and March 1994 was 8, at a cost of £42,376.

Letter from P. R. S. Hartnack to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: I am replying in respect of the Patent Office to the question you tabled in Parliament on 29 April, regarding consultancy contracts let by DTI executive agencies over the last five years. The Patent Office has been empowered to let contracts since it became an agency in March 1990. Since then, we have let five "general" or "management" consultancy contracts, at a cost of £10,100. Three of these involved advice on recruitment advertising or the establishment of training projects. Over this period we have also placed ten contracts for advice on building works and other property services (at a cost of £53,600) in connection with the seven sites from which we operate; and three contracts (£34,800) for legal and information technology advice: the Patent Office is very dependent upon its IT systems in order to perform its statutory duties. I hope that this is helpful.

Letter from Jim Norton to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994: I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question to the President of the Board of Trade about the number of consultancy contracts let by this Agency in the last five years; and at what cost. The Radiocommunications Agency was created as an Executive Agency of the DTI in April 1990. Before that date all contracts were let through the DTI. The figures in the table below therefore relate only to the years from 1990–91. Details are given concerning all contracts let to external consultants. Some of these contracts span financial years with payments being made on a staged basis across the life of the contract.

Financial year	Number of contracts	¹Value £ thousands
1990–91	10	471
1991–92	10	746
1992–93	14	1,058
1993–94	8	768
¹ Including VAT.

In addition, the Radiocommunications Agency funds academic institutions and other research bodies to carry out research into radio propagation as part of our research programme.

I hope this information is useful.

Letter from D. Cormack to Mr. Alan Milburn, dated 16 May 1994:

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION

PQ from Mr. Alan Milburn (Darlington):

To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his Answer of 24 March, Official Report, columns 428–9, how many consultancy contracts have been let by his Department's executive agencies in the last five years; and at what cost.

Warren Spring Laboratory Executive Agency has let no consultancy contracts in the last five years.