§ Mr. Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what is his estimate of the expenditure of his(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 he will also estimate the cost savings resulting from the employment of such consultants for each of the above years. [26626]
§ Mr. Tom Clarke[holding answer 5 February 1998]: My Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies use consultants for a wide variety of tasks. The available expenditure information is given in the following table: