§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the occasions during the: last five years when his Department or its agencies has taken legal action against a consultancy firm; and what were the reasons in each case.
§ Sir John WheelerNone.
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§ Mr. Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what are his latest estimates of the expenditure on all external consultants, including management consultants, for each year since 1987, in 1994 prices, for his Department and its agencies; and what are the quantified annual cost savings which such expenditure has resulted in.
§ Sir John Wheeler[holding answer 9 February 1995]: The information requested is not available in all the Northern Ireland Departments and the Northern Ireland Office for each year. However, from the information available, expenditure on external consultants, including management consultants in 1994 prices was:
Year Expenditure (£000) 1987–88 1,580 1988–89 8,889 1989–90 14,451 1990–91 17,753 1991–92 26,141 1992–93 29,662 1993–94 30,286 1994–95 116,933 1 Available estimates to date. As consultants are, in many instances, engaged to contribute particular skills to an element of a much larger process, it is not possible to quantify cost savings which such expenditure has resulted in but, in each instance, consultants were engaged on the basis of best value for money.