Asked by CSW whether the Cabinet Office will loosen its consultancy controls so that such debacles are not repeated, Crothers replied: “On West Coast there were no requests for consultants that were turned down in that area, so it was not the cause of what happened. It’s a bit of an urban myth.”
The Laidlaw report into the DfT project found that the use of financial advisers could have “considerably reduced the risk”, adding that the DfT’s decision to run the project using “its own internal capability and resources” was a “misjudgement” and led to “considerable errors”. However, Crothers told CSW that “I know there were approvals made and they were consultant approvals.”
He added that £650m is still spent on consultants each year, and that he does not expect to see that level decline by much more: “I don’t think we’ll go further than £650m. I think it’s found its level,” he said. “We still spend a lot, but I think we’re now spending appropriately.”
Meanwhile, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told CSW that the Ministry of Defence’s decision to “ask the centre to take on a big chunk of its procurement” will help “drive change much more rapidly now”, hastening progress on procurement reforms which have been criticised for their slow pace.