To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the management consultancies (a) his Department and (b) the executive agencies for which he is responsible have employed in connection with the Next Steps agency programme; and if he will list the task for which they were employed, and the fee paid.

Consultants have been employed on eight occasions to advise on the development of financial and management systems for my Department's agencies and agency candidates. Details of the individual contracts are commercially confidential.