Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Government has made extensive use of consultants to support preparations for EU Exit, and is...
Conclusion
Government has made extensive use of consultants to support preparations for EU Exit, and is also doing so on Covid-19. This Committee has raised concerns in the past about government’s increasing spend on consultants, and on the gap between the Cabinet Office’s and departments’ data on spending across government.50 The Treasury explained that consultants had been used as ‘substitutes for civil servants’, to fill supposed gaps in capacity and skills of the civil service. Both the Cabinet Office and the Treasury agreed with us that this was an area of concern, and plan to take action to reduce this spending in the future. The Treasury and the Cabinet Office have worked to update the definition of consultancy, and now use that single definition for all financial reporting. The Treasury anticipates that this will enable consultancy and contingent labour to be an area of focus in the 2020 spending review to ensure departments are making the best use of spending in this area.51
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3. 1 The government disagrees with this recommendation. 3.2 Please refer to the department’s response to recommendation 4. 3.3 The government agrees with this recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2021 3.4 The government has established a programme to review each aspect of how the government engages with consultants. Rupert McNeil, Government Chief People Officer, is SRO for the programme. 3.5 The programme covers: ● Government Consulting Hub - Establishing the Government Consulting Hub (GCH) to stand up the government centre for expertise in consulting. It will deliver strategy consulting projects to departments, inform best practice on when and how departments engage consultants, triage demand, draw together HM Government (HMG) consulting expertise into a profession, share ways of working, and be the single source of knowledge and advice on consultancy matters across government. ● Controls - Reforming central controls on consultancy expenditure. ● Data - Improving the quality of data and reporting on which firms the government uses, how much it spends and for what purpose. ● Standard - Developing a new ‘consultancy standard’ setting out requirements commissioners must meet when buying consultancy (for example, around knowledge transfer and performance management), supported by a Consultancy Playbook and a comply or explain approach ● Strategic Workforce Planning and Capability and Training - Sharing knowledge with Strategic Workforce Planning (in Civil Service HR) and Government Curriculum and Skills Unit (GCSU) to tackle capacity and capability drivers of consultancy spend. 3.6 The government is rapidly developing the Hub and aims to launch a pathfinder version of the Government Consulting Hub in early 2021 to iteratively design, test, learn and improve each element of the Hub.