Planning Inspectorate: Consultants

John McDonnell
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Planning Inspectorate spent on consultants (excluding the cost of consultant inspectors) in each of the last four years; and what such consultants were tasked to work on.

Yvette Cooper
The Planning Inspectorate’s spend on external advice and contracts over the last four financial years has been:

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|       |Total (£)|
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|2003-04|2,778,726|
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|2004-05|2,824,952|
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|2005-06|3,380,614|
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|2006-07|1,604,379|
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This included:

Planning Portal Development

Planning Casework System Development

Human Resources and Training Development

Major Inspector Recruitment Advice

Agency Restructuring Advice

Baseline Study of Inspector Working

Electronic Business Modelling

Householder Development Consent Review

John McDonnell
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what measures the Planning Inspectorate has in place to achieve value for money in the procurement of external consultants undertaken by the agency’s procurement unit.

Yvette Cooper
The Planning Inspectorate has a dedicated procurement unit and all consultancy contracts are handled within that unit. In the drive to deliver value for money close attention is paid to standard best practice procurement procedures, from clear specification through to effective contract management. Extensive use is also made of the framework contracts managed by the Office of Government Commerce to deliver both price and process savings.