To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent on consultants by the National Policing Improvement Agency in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by (a) project and (b) contractor. (254822)

The total National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) consultancy spend for the 2007-08 financial year was £71.4 million. This spend is made up of £66.5 million which was recorded in the Income and Expenditure accounts, along with £4.9 million of capitalised spend, which was included in the fixed asset additions for the year.

The main consultancy services purchased by the NPIA are:

specialised technical resources needed in the design and build of technology projects, for use by the police service,

project and programme management skills,

specific expert advice and guidance, where the NPIA does not retain the required skills or knowledge.

We do not hold this information in the format requested, but are able to provide the following without incurring disproportionate cost.

Table 1 shows consultancy spend on key projects within the NPIA during 2007-08.

Table 2 shows the cost of the 20 largest suppliers of consultancy resource to the NPIA during this period.