The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) collates data on consultancy expenditure as part of its Consultancy Value Programme which assists departments in driving greater value from Government's use of consultants. The Ministry's expenditure on consultancy for 2007-08 is reported as £56 million and can be found from the link:
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/professional_services_consultancy _value_programme.asp
The 2008-09 data collection and analysis exercise has recently concluded, giving a finalised figure of £49.7 million. This will be posted on the OGC website in due course. A small element of this finalised figure represents an estimate based on average spend per commission where the data provided by business areas was incomplete.
Both the 2007-08 and 2008-09 figures reflect expenditure by the Ministry of Justice headquarters, HM Courts Service, HM Courts Service Estates, Tribunals Service, and the National Offender Management Service (except for the Probation Service). Refinements in the methodology for classifying expenditure in accordance with OGC taxonomy means that the 2007-08 and 2008-09 figures are not directly comparable at a detailed level.
Within the totals for each year, the National Offender Management Service accounts for £5 million in 2007-08, excluding payments to Treasury Solicitors which were included in the £56 million total, and £1.35 million in 2008-09.
The Ministry was established in May 2007 so data is not available prior to 2007-08 for the Department in its current form.
NOMS receives a delegated budget from the Ministry in order to conduct its business. NOMS have to meet its own consultancy fees from this delegated budget.