§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of times since 1 May 1997 that his Department has employed outside consultants indicating in each case(a) the task and (b) the cost of the contract. [75449]
§ Mr. StrawInformation on the number of times since 1 May 1997 that the Department has employed outside consultants, the tasks they undertook and the cost of each contract is not recorded centrally and could be obtained at short notice only at disproportionate cost.
However, a planned exercise will take place in April this year to gather information on the Department's use of consultants and it is expected that the data will be available during May. I will place this information in the Library when it is available, and will write to the hon. Member at the same time.