To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development how many consultancies were commissioned by the Department in the last two years for which figures are available; and what the cost of those contracts was. [130889]

DFID central Procurement Department commissioned consultancy contracts as follows:

	Number of contracts	£ million
2001–02	1,082	282
2002–03	833	262

In addition, DFID overseas departments commissioned lower value contracts worth a total of £20 million in 2001–02 and £25 million in 2002–03.