Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
We again challenged the Department and NHST&T on the value for money of their spend...
Conclusion
We again challenged the Department and NHST&T on the value for money of their spend on consultants. The Department told us the average day rate for consultants was £1,100 but that some would have “undoubtedly” earned more than that. They were unable to tell us what NHST&T’s highest paid individual consultants received during our evidence session and committed to providing us with further detail.47 However, in their letter to us after our evidence session, the Department and the Chief Executive of the UKHSA subsequently informed us that they were not able to provide any further information as NHST&T did not hold data on the pay of individual consultants.48
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: June 2022 5.2 The UKHSA wrote to the Committee on 16 December 2021 setting out how it has reduced its dependency on consultants. 5.3 The UKHSA continues to recruit civil servants to replace remaining management consultants as far as possible. COVID-19 response roles are generally offered on the basis of short-term loans, secondments and fixed term appointments to avoid a permanent increase in the size of the organisation; however, these are often less attractive, which reduces the supply of candidates. Work is underway to determine the strategy for managing future health threats and this will provide the longer-term certainty to enable the UKHSA to develop a sustainable resource plan with the agility to flex resources to reflect changing priorities and demands. 5.4 The UKHSA will write to the Committee with further progress updates in March 2022 and June 2022.