To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much (a) his Department, (b) the National Offender Management Service and (c) HM Prison Service spent on consultancy fees on implementation of the Workforce Modernisation programme in each financial year since 2006-07. (263783)

Since its inception in October 2007, the NOMS Workforce Modernisation programme has engaged a number of consultants to assist with the delivery of various aspects of the programme. In FY 2007-2008 the programme spent £530,000 and in FY 2008-09 to end of January 2009 the programme spent £1.92 million, on consultancy services. In all instances, consultancy is only used to cover areas where in-house skills do not exist, is time limited and relates to very clear outcomes for the programme. Necessary workforce changes in NOMS will need to be implemented to support delivery of significant long term efficiency savings within the public sector Prison Service.