To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2010, Official Report, column 1399W, on home care services: finance, what estimate he has made of his Department’s expenditure on (a) administration and (b) management consultants in 2009-10. (321610)

The Department’s administration budget does not meet all the costs of administering major programmes funded from the Department’s central budgets.

The Department’s administration budget for 2009-10 was set out in the spring supplementary estimates at £218 million. The spring supplementary estimates are available on the HM Treasury website at:

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/springsupps0910_doh.pdf

Data on the estimated spend by the Department on management consultants for 2009-10 are not available in the format requested. Information for the full year 2009-2010 will be published in due course, after it has been validated.