External Consultants (Hansard, 31 March 2003)

§ Mr. Bercow
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total cost to his Department was of the use of external consultants in 2002. [90505]

§ Mr. Laws
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much(a) his Department and (b) each agency and non-departmental public body spent on external consultancy in each year from 1995–96 to 2002–03 (planned); and if he will make a statement. [92234]

§ Ruth Kelly
The costs to HM Treasury for external consultants were as follows:

Year £000

1995–96¹ 1,900

1996–97 1,032

1997–98 1,160

1998–99 1,789

1999–2000 1,489

2000–01 1,667

2001–02 1,160

2002–03² 1,972

¹ These figures include expenditure incurred on professional fees in connection with the privatisation programme.

² To date.

The current year's figure includes an exceptional number of projects related to cyclical investment in Treasury's IT system. For example we have upgraded our financial accounting and the Economic Forecasting Database (£304,482). In previous years, spend was dominated by large policy projects, rather than replacing IT systems.

Year	£000
1995–96¹	1,900
1996–97	1,032
1997–98	1,160
1998–99	1,789
1999–2000	1,489
2000–01	1,667
2001–02	1,160
2002–03²	1,972
¹ These figures include expenditure incurred on professional fees in connection with the privatisation programme.
² To date.