Question

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, how much the corporate officer of the House of Commons has spent on external consultants in each of the last five years; and if he will publish a breakdown of the (a) amount paid to each consultancy contracted, (b) name of each consultancy contracted and (c) specific matters on which they were consulted.

The House has spent the following amounts on external consultants in each of the last five financial years:

FY 2017/18 - £1,024,000
FY 2018/19 - £1,360,000
FY 2019/20 - £2,530,000
FY 2020/21 - £3,701,000
FY 2021/22 - £3,232,000

The Clerk has implemented a policy governing the use of consultants including requirements for justification of the use of consultants and maximum daily rates.

The total spend on consultancy per year is consistent with analysis provided in the published House of Commons Administration Annual Report and Accounts.

The information has been compiled in the table attached showing the relevant and requested data over the last five financial years.

a) Amount paid to each consultancy contracted is provided in ‘Amount paid’ columns for each year

b) Name of each consultancy contracted is provided in ‘Consultants’ column

c) Specific matters on which they were consulted is provided in ‘Consultation matters’ columns for each year.