Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2023 to Question 165263 on Government Consulting Hub: Staff, for what reasons his Department closed the Government Consulting Hub.

The Government Consulting Hub (GCH) was established to ensure the government built more in-house capability.

We have made significant progress in this area on a number of fronts. A key focus of the GCH was to develop capability and ownership of this work across government to ensure this is embedded in the long-term.

The triage service, developed by GCH, has been transferred to the Crown Commercial Service, building on the work done by GCH with each department - this transition is a recognition of the maturity level of the service, which means it can now integrate with CCS work with consultancy procurement strategies across government. The very well received Consultancy Playbook, setting a new bar of how we get best value from external firms, operates alongside the suite of playbooks, owned and led by the Commercial Function.

The GCH capability programme, supporting civil servants to adopt consultancy type skills where appropriate, is now fully onboarded to Civil Service Learning, and will continue to be available to all civil servants. By improving these skills in the public sector, we can continue to ensure the government is only using consultants when absolutely necessary.