Departmental Consultants

Mr. Hoban
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which private consultancy firms (a) his Department and (b) agencies which report to his Department engaged in each of the last three years; which programmes or projects each firm worked on; and what the approximate cost to the Department or agency of each engagement was.

Mr. Thomas
Central records indicate that the Department has spent the following on consultancy services:

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|Financial year|£ million|
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|2005-06       |53.6     |
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|2006-07       |40.2     |
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|2007-08       |1 16.3   |
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|1 to date     |         |
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I have placed in the Library of the House a list of companies that received payments for consultancy services in each of the last three financial years, together with details of the total amount paid to each.