Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
71st Report - Government’s use of external consultants
Published 11 Mar 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Government's use of external consultants All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We questioned whether government has a breakdown of the amount spent on consultancy services in government with individual consultancy firms, separating audit fees from consultancy work. The Chief Commercial Officer explained they have the total annual spend, broken down by department.14 This is not currently broken down by type of service, but the Cabinet Office stated that they could provide these figures as departments are likely to hold this information. The Department questioned the relevance of the request, noting that most audit services are not provided by external firms, and said that the best way to provide full transparency is to look across all categories of expenditure and show that each is reducing.15
From: Public Accounts Committee, 71st Report - Government’s use of external consultants (HC 1521), 11 March 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 June 2026 (deadline 11 May 2026).