To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what consultancy contracts his Department issued in each year since 2005; what the (a) value, (b) purpose and (c) contractor was in each case; and whether the consultant's report is publicly available in each case. (181888)

This information is not held centrally in the form requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

However, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) on 25 October 2007, Official Report, columns 477-478W, where I stated that I had placed in the Library of the House a list of contracts signed by MOD with a net value of more than £20,000 in financial year 2006-07 on management and business consultancy, finance and accountancy consultancy, corporate governance and audit consultancy, and public/private partnership and private finance initiative consultancy that passed through a centralised approval process. These figures do not contain spend by the MOD's trading funds or agencies or on other types of consultancy.

Information on organisations, including consultancy firms, paid £5 million or more by the MOD in each financial year is published in the UK Defence Statistics. Copies are also placed in the Library of the House.

Furthermore, details of the Department's spend on external assistance, of which consultancy is a part, has been reported to Ministers since 1995-96: summaries are again available in the Library.