Consultancy Costs

Dear Sir or Madam,

In 2008-09 the Home Office spent £140m on consultancy services.
(Hansard: HC Deb, 30 June 2009, c164W).

How much of the work these consultants carried out could have been
done by Civil Servants from within the Home Office or from other
Government Departments.

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Senior

Dear Ian,

Thank you for your reply.

You mention Home Office Commercial Directorate procedures that
require the HO Human Resource division to seek an ‘internal
resource’ before engaging outside consultants. Can you please
clarify the term ‘Internal resource’?

Does this mean purely within the Home Office?

Regards,

Chris

Dear Ian,

Thank you for your reply.

The Civil Service employs a large number of specialists and experts
in many fields, across all Government Departments. Are you saying
that before spending £140m of taxpayer’s money on private sector
consultants, there are no procedures in place to see if there is
anyone from within the Civil Service who could do the job that no
one within the Home Office is capable of doing?

Regards,

Chris

Dear Ian,

I emailed the following below to you on the 3rd August 2009:

Dear Ian,

Thank you for your reply.

The Civil Service employs a large number of specialists and experts
in many fields, across all Government Departments. Are you saying
that before spending £140m of taxpayer’s money on private sector
consultants, there are no procedures in place to see if there is
anyone from within the Civil Service who could do the job that no
one within the Home Office is capable of doing?

Regards,
Chris

I appreciate it was sent during the hight of the school holidays,
but it was not a rhetorical question and I would be grateful for
your reply.

Regards,
Chris

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Senior

Dear Ian,

Thank you for your reply.

Without any sarcasm intended or implied, may I congratulate you on
a superb piece of ‘departmental speak’; it says a lot, includes
some of the current in vogue idioms, but reveals nothing.

I was not asking if individuals from other government departments
are brought in to fill internal roles. I should have been more
specific with my question and not given the impression that I was
using the word ‘anyone’ in its singular generic quintessence. That
was my error and I apologise.

When it comes to obtaining informed advice and guidance from
external organisations with specific expertise and experience to
offer, the Home Office does not simply go to the Yellow Pages, look
up ‘consultants’, run down the list, choose a name and give them a
call. At least I hope it does not. I presume the Home Office goes
to a specific private sector firm, industry or group of consultants
depending on the particular area in which the HO lacks the internal
expertise.

What I am trying to find out is that before the private sector is
called in, does the HO contact other government departments to see
if they have any staff with the specialist knowledge, skill,
capacity and technical expertise that can make a collective
intellectual contribution to the particular challenge facing the
Department?

I suspect the answer is a simple, one word “No”, but I will await
your response.

Kind regards,

Chris Senior