HL Deb 13 January 1997 vol 577 cc5-6WA
Baroness Park of Monmouth

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How much they spent on consultancies in the years 1992-96, broken down by department.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe):

I have asked ministerial departments and the Attorney General's Office to provide details of their expenditure on consultancies in the years 1992-96. Unless otherwise noted, the figures shown in the table below are for expenditure on external consultancy at 1996 prices and include departmental agencies, where appropriate.

£ millions
Department 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96
Environment 110.20 110.20 1, 211.30 1, 2, 39.00
Welsh Office 1.55 1.55 0.84 1.21
Scottish Office 4.68 5.63 4.17 5.44
Attorney General4 1.20 1.34 1.24 1.14
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Diplomatic Wing 5— 14.20 13.60 17.65
Aid Wing 5— 0.61 0.50 1.28
Transport 253.0 213.0 208.0 176.0
Northern Ireland Office and Departments 19.94 30.59 24.41 24.65
Social Security 36.39 33.99 26.10 24.01
Trade & Industry 40.48 31.77 9.95 6.48
Ministry of Defence6 n/a n/a n/a 150.8
Education & Employment7 n/a n/a n/a n/a
HM Treasury8 2.70 6.90 5.80 2.10
PAYMASTER8 n/a 0.90 0.80 1.20
Cabinet Office9 6.75 6.32 6.25 4.07
HMSO 0.45 1.10 1.80 0.84
£ millions
Department 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96
Central Office of Information 0.15 0.07 0.16 0.14
Health 19.73 16.61 18.92 18.36
Ministry of Agriculture10 7.60 13.83 12.55 14.73
Home Office11 9.90 3.70 2.80 10.20
Lord President of the Council12 nil nil 0.01 0.02
HM Customs & Excise13 n/a n/a n/a 5.40
Inland Revenue 25.90 24.50 25.30 29.20
Valuation Office Agency 12.90 0.60 0.30 0.30
National Heritage14 4.46 6.25 2.76 1.75
Lord Chancellor's Department 3.63 1.28 1.68 4.29
Notes:
1Department of the Environment: figures exclude expenditure by Property Holdings/PACE.
2DoE: figures exclude expenditure by the Building Research Establishment, which does not hold a central record of expenditure on consultancies.
3DoE: 1995–96 figures are best estimates.
4Attorney General: this is an aggregated figure for the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, the Treasury Solicitor and the Government Property Lawyers.
5Foreign and Commonwealth Office: figures for earlier years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
6Ministry of Defence: information on expenditure on external consultants is not held centrally for the years 1992–93 to 1994–95. The figure for 1995–96 includes expenditure of £25 million by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, which operates as a trading fund.
7DFEE: information in the form requested could only he obtained at disproportionate cost.
8HM Treasury: separate figures supplied for PAYMASTER (shown above), Office for National Statistics (£0.26 million since its inception) and the Royal Mint (approximately £100,000 since 199293). Figures do not include HM Customs & Excise or Inland Revenue departments, whose expenditure is shown separately.
9Cabinet Office: figures include the Office of Public Service and its agencies, except HMSO and COI which are shown separately. The figures also include expenditure by privatised agencies (Chessington Computer Centre, Recruitment and Assessment Services and Occupational Health & Safety Agency) up to the date of privatisation.
10Ministry of Agriculture: figure for 1995-96 is an estimate and excludes expenditure by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and the Meat Hygiene Service.
11Home Office: figures for 1993-94 and 1994-95 represent expenditure on management consultancy only.
12Lord President's Office: expenditure shown relates to the work of the Central Drugs Co-ordination Unit (charged to the Privy Council).
13HM Custom & Excise: figures for earlier years could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
14DNH: aggregated figures include Historic Royal Palaces Agency and, for 1993-94 to 1995-96, the Royal Parks Agency.