To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 30 April 2007, Official Report, column 1513W, on the NHS: consultants, what recent estimates have been made of the average annual expenditure on management consultancy organisations by the NHS. (137371)

Information on the estimated costs of employing management consultants in the national health service trusts is not collected centrally.

While primary care trusts and NHS trusts operate within the financial framework set by the Department, they are accountable to strategic health authorities for their financial performance, not the Department.