Recommendation 6

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