Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much and what proportion of his Department's budget was spent on activities which were contracted out in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12, (d) 2012-13 and (e) 2013-14; and how much and what proportion of his Department's budget he expects to be contracted out in 2014-15.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change entered into a contract for the provision of transactional HR and finance services in November 2013 and incurred expenditure of £0.5m during 2013-14. This is equivalent to 0.01% of total departmental expenditure for the year. In previous years the equivalent services were provided to DECC by other government departments. Expenditure on these services in 2014-15 is forecast to be approximately £1.2m and to account for a similar proportion of total expenditure.