To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency spent on external information technology consultants in each of the last five financial years; and if he will make a statement. (226754)

Prior to the implementation of the new financial accounting system (SAP) in 2007, as part of the new Shared Services Arrangements, DVLA did not separately identify the different types of consultancy expenditure incurred. To interrogate the data for 2003-2007 would incur disproportionate costs so the following table details all contracts awarded to external information technology consultants and the value of those contracts, between 2004-05 and 2007-08.

A large proportion of the spend allocated to 2006-07 was for a single project which actually spans several financial years.