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 Offi...

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 Type: conclusion | Number: 19 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: 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