§ Mr. PoundTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many firms of external consultants have been engaged by Remploy between April 2001 and March 2002; and if he will list them; [59246]
(2) which firms of consultants are engaged by Remploy; [59247]
(3) for what purposes consultants have been engaged by Remploy in the past 12 months; [59248]
(4) what the total cost is for services provided by consultants engaged by Remploy over the past 12 months, broken down by (a) consultancy firm and (b) individual projects. [59249]
§ Maria EagleIn the period April 2001 to March 2002, Remploy has engaged 13 sets of consultants from 11 firms at a cost of £723,000. This represents 0.3 per cent. of Remploy's turnover in that year. The consultants were engaged to assist Remploy in the delivery of its modernisation strategy. Remploy currently has no consultancy support.
The further information requested is in the table.
291W
Consultant Project details Cost (£) Ashridge Productivity and continuous improvement project aimed at removing bottlenecks and barriers—process and attitudinal. A team of Remploy people has been trained in Ashridge methodology and is rolling out the programme. This is improving significantly employee involvement, morale and productivity in those sites where the programme has been run. 172,000 Bryan Harrison Developing new areas of business for Interwork—links with NHS. 2,000 Fulcrum Property portfolio review. 6,000 Quantum Edge Developing new processes for the WORKSTEP programme—development plans and profiling. 26,000 Total — 723,000 1 Organisation, Consulting Partnership 2 Remploy's external auditors