To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 22 February 2007, Official Report, column 989W, on Departments: consultants, on which consultancy firms the £47.2 million spent on external consultancy services was spent; which projects each worked on; and what the total cost in consultancy fees was for each private finance initiative project. (153608)

The Ministry of Defence uses external consultants to provide specialist commercial, financial and legal services to Integrated Project Teams to assist in the delivery of services (both PFI and non PFI). In addition, ad-hoc specialist technical consultants are engaged in particular areas where in-house expertise is not available.

The Department requires that expenditure on consultants is pre-approved and allocated by budget to specific projects. Centrally the Department collates a global total of all consultancy fees but does not record other details centrally and therefore the information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.