Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was (1) the annual budget, and (2) the staffing level of the Mystery Shopper Service; and what are the planned annual budget and staffing level of its successor body, the Public Procurement Review Service.

The Mystery Shopper was renamed the Public Procurement Review Service on 29 November 2018

The budget for the Public Procurement Review Service is allocated within the overall budget for the Small Business Policy Team in the Cabinet Office. At present there are four full time members of staff and one part time (0.6 FTE) member of staff working on the Public Procurement Review Service

The staffing budget for the Small Business Policy Team in 2017/18 was £847,000, and the total spend for the Small Business Policy Team was £968,000

The staffing budget for the Small Business Policy Team in 2018/19 is £971,900, and the total spend for the Small Business Policy Team is £1,094,700

The number of staff who worked in the Mystery Shopper team since the service commenced in 2011 can be viewed at the following link: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-01-18/210027/