Departments: Consultants

Mr. Djanogly
To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how much the Department for Constitutional Affairs spent on consultancy and professional services in 2005-06.

Mr. Sutcliffe
In 2005-06, the Department for Constitutional Affairs spent £15.6 million—0.43 per cent. of its budget on consultancy. This included expenditure by its executive agencies as follows:

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|                            |£           |
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|DCA HQ                      |10.1 million|
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|Her Majesty's Courts Service|5.0 million |
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|Tribunals Service           |0.4 million |
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|Public Guardianship Office  |53,000      |
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While details of expenditure on other professional services were held by individual business managers, they were not collected centrally for this period. The Department for Constitutional Affairs bought a range of such services across its many business areas. An exercise to identify and collate such expenditure could be conducted only at disproportionate cost.