To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent by (a) the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) on external consultancy fees and (b) his Department on external consultancy fees related to NOMS in each of the last three years. (179366)

Central collation of NOMS HQ costs started in February 2006, following its creation on 1 April 2005. The amount spent on consultants by NOMS during the period February 2006 to December 2007 is as follows:

It is not possible to provide details of Consultancy spend for NOMS by the wider Department, since such details were not collated centrally during this period. The cost, however, is likely to be negligible in the context of information provided in the table.