Information on the Home Department's, including the Criminal Records Bureau, United Kingdom Border Agency and Identity and Passport Service agencies, total consultancy expenditure from 2005-06 is as follows:
Financial year Expenditure on consultancy services (£ million) 2005-06 139 2006-07 148 2007-08 96 2008-09 139
Information on non-departmental public bodies' consultancy expenditure from 2005-06 is as follows:
Financial year 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Independent Police Complaints Commission (£000) 1— 53 158 578 Independent Safeguarding Authority (£000) n/a n/a n/a 405 National Policing Improvement Agency (£ million) n/a n/a 71 22 Security Industry Agency (£000) 480 394 137 387 Serious Organised Crime Agency (£ million) n/a 1.6 1.6 1.8 1 Unavailable.
Information on other bodies sponsored by the Department is not held and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Consultancy and advisory services cover the provision to the Home Office of objective advice and assistance relating to strategy, structure, management or operations of an organisation in pursuit of its purposes and objectives. The use of external consultants provides the Department with specialist knowledge, skill, capacity and technical expertise that would not otherwise be available.
The Department's overall expenditure on consultancy services represents a small part of the Home Office's overall spend, and at the end of the first half of the current financial year, it stood at some 5.8 per cent. of total overall expenditure, down from 8 per cent. in the previous year.
The Department has in place a series of workstreams designed to bear down on departmental reliance and expenditure on consultancy and other external resources, including being the first Government Department to have introduced (in 2009) prescribed daily fee rates for contractors.