§ Mr. Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is her estimate of the expenditure of her(a) Department, (b) agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies on external consultants in (i) 1995–96, (ii) 1996–97, (iii) 1997–98 to date and (iv) 1997–98 full year; and if she will also estimate the cost savings resulting from the employment of such consultants for each of the above years. [26605]
§ Mr. Paul Murphy[holding answer 5 February 1998]: The information for the Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Ireland Departments is as follows:
£000 Expenditure Year (a) (b) (c)1 1995–96 10,284 3,202 1,221 1996–97 7,355 3,291 1,228 1997–98 5,979 4,353 1,235 1 Information on NDPBs from the Department of Education is not readily available and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. As consultants are, in many instances, engaged to contribute particular skills to an element of a much larger process, or where the necessary expertise is not available in-house, it is not possible to quantify savings resulting from the employment of such consultants, but in each instance consultants were engaged on the basis of best value for money.