Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Expenditure over £25,000 - March 2018, published on 2 May 2018, for what parts of the grants efficiency accelerator programme the payments to Ernst & Young were made.

Ernst & Young (EY) were successful through a procurement process to deliver Phase 1 of the Grants Efficiency Accelerator, which aims to validate risk in general grants administration and realise efficiency savings. EY worked as part of a blended team with the Cabinet Office Grants Function and provided flexible access to the expertise and capabilities required to deliver this work at pace. This included fraud and data experts as well as economic data modelling and programme delivery specialists.