To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 26 February 2010, Official Report, column 803W, on Pre-Budget Report 2009, what estimate he has made of the value in cash terms of expenditure on (a) consultancies and (b) marketing and communications in 2009-10. (322877)

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 26 February 2010, Official Report, column 806W, on public expenditure, for what reason the marketing and communications spend is to be reduced against a 2009-10 baseline and the consultancy spend is to be reduced according to a 2008-09 baseline. (323531)

Budget 2010 announced that over £11 billion of savings have now been identified by Department for the years from 2012-13. This includes the consultancy, marketing and communications cuts which were identified based on 2008-09 spending levels, currently the most recent financial year that spending levels are available for. The 2008-09 spend is set out in the “Public Sector Procurement Expenditure Survey 2009”, published alongside Budget.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 26 February 2010, Official Report, column 806W, on public expenditure, what the reason is for the base year chosen to calculate savings on expenditure on (a) consultancy and (b) marketing and communications. (324478)

Budget 2010 announced that over £11 billion of savings have now been identified by Departments for the years from 2012-13. This includes over £650 million by 2012-13 from reducing departmental consultancy spend by 50 per cent. and departmental marketing and communications spend by 25 per cent. from 2008-09 spending levels. These spending levels were chosen because they are the most recent financial year that spending levels are available for. The 2008-09 spend is set out in the “Public Sector Procurement Expenditure Survey 2009”, published alongside the Budget.