Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consultants have been used to advise on Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail; and how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees on that matter to date.

The following external consultants have provided services in relation to The Williams Rail Review and the subsequent Willams-Shapps Plan for Rail: Ashurst; PWC; Rail Delivery Group; Eversheds Sutherland; Britain Thinks; Steer Davies Gleave; Jacobs; and Deloitte

The total associated external consultancy spend by financial year is as follows:

2018-19 - £647,791

2019-20 - £2,576,541

2020-21 - £878,014

2021-22 - £145,793 (year to date)

Consultancy is defined as the provision of objective advice relating to strategy, structure, management or operations of an organisation, in pursuit of its purposes and objectives. Such advice is provided outside the ‘business-as-usual’ environment when in-house skills are not available and is time-limited. The numbers provided here are from unaudited internal management information.