To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department spent on consultants in each of the last 10 years. (141010)

The Department was formed in May 2002. Details of expenditure by the Department on consultants from 2002-03 to 2006-07 are shown as follows:

The business units within the Department currently use separate accounting systems which record expenditure differently. The totals include a mixture of committed spend (i.e. orders raised) and actual spend incurred. The Professional Services Forum definition of consultancy has been applied since 2005-06 resulting in more accurate coding of expenditure.