Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a list of all secondees to his Office from (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young, (d) KPMG and (e) other consulting firms in the last three financial years; and what the role was of each of those secondees.

Information relating to specific pieces of work undertaken by all consulting firms including details of secondments from consulting firms is not held centrally and is therefore only available at disproportionate cost. In May 2010 the Cabinet Office introduced a control on the use of consultants within central government to reduce spending and to challenge organisations to only use consultants when absolutely necessary. Details of expenditure approvals for consultancy controls are published on: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk and on data.gov.uk: www.data.gov.uk Additionally, all new contracts over the value of £10,000 and payments of over £25,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder Under the Government controls introduced in May 2010, any contract for consultancy the estimated value of which exceeds £20,000 and exceeds 9 months in duration must be approved by the MCO and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Any consultancy contracts that fall outside of this scope must be approved by Cabinet Office Finance as part of the standard departmental financial controls. The full Cabinet Office Controls guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-controls/cabinet-office-controls-guidance-version-40