§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what are the total fees his Department has paid to date to consultants engaged in the financial and operational restructuring of London Underground; what additional sums he expects to pay consultants on this work; which consultants have been employed on the restructuring project; and if he will make a statement on progress made so far with the project. [71179]
§ Dr. ReidThe Department has not paid any money to consultants engaged in the financial and operational restructuring of London Underground. However, London Transport has spent money on such consultants and I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Mr. Brake) by my hon. Friend the Minister for Transport in London on 13 January 1999,Official Report, column 212. It is not normal practice to publish forecasts of total costs, for the good reason that publicising such information could undermine the public sector's ability to manage the costs of advisers.
The main consultants employed by London Transport are:
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (financial)
- Freshfields (legal)
- Ove Amp and Partners (engineering)
- Arthur Andersen (operations entity design)
- PA Consulting (Infrastructure entities design and financial modelling)
- Horngold and Hill (project management)
- Richard Ellis (property)
- Sedgwick (insurance)
- Bacon & Woodrow (pensions)
Work on restructuring London Underground into one operations entity and three infrastructure entities is proceeding. London Transport expect to invite expressions of interests from potential bidders shortly.