§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much(a) his Department, (b) the NHS and (c) his Department's agencies spent on external consultants in each year since 1995. [53330]
§ Ms JowellExpenditure by the Department of Health, its agencies, and the National Health Service1 since 1995 is as follows:
Year DH £ million NHS trusts £ million Health Authorities £000 Agencies £ million 1994–95 18.469 68.326 259.302 2.331 1995–96 18.504 89.369 277.982 2.096 1996–97 314.518 107.152 21.698 1.582 1997–98 311.848 4— 4— 1.632 1 Information on consultants is not collected separately for the NHS but is included in information on external contract staffing and consultancy 2 Includes figures for Regional Health Authorities 3 Includes figures for Regional Offices of the NHS Executive, which became part of the Department of Health in April 1996 4 Not yet available Note:
Part of the explanation for the apparently decreasing trend in Departmental and agency expenditure is the adoption of a new definition of consultancy, agreed by Ministers during 1997–98 and implemented in-year