The Ministry of Defence almost halved its spending on consultants during 2015-16, in what the department said was evidence that it is becoming “more self-reliant” in the wake of the Levene Reforms.
According to MoD resources statistics published today, the department spent just under £49m on consultancy services, such as legal advice, accountancy, specialist estates advice, and training, during the year to April.
The figure is just over half the roughly £90 million spent on such services provided by non-MoD personnel in both 2014-15 and 2013-14.
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The MoD’s spending on consultants was just under £20m in 2011-12, but rose dramatically after former permanent secretary Lord Levene’s reports in the early years of the coalition government found the department needed to bring in specialist help to drive transformation.
In its commentary on the latest statistics, the MoD said the reduced spending reflected the working through of crossbench peer Lord Levene’s strategies.
“Recent increased spending levels on consultancy services were in large part due to the implementation of the Levene Reforms over the past few years,” it said.
“To help achieve the level of transformation necessary, MoD has needed, for the short term, to bring in specialist skills from outside the department which cannot be found among the permanent workforce of the department or elsewhere within central government.
“The fall in 2015-16 reflects a significant reduction in the use of consultancy as the Levene Reforms bed in and the MoD becomes more self-reliant.”
According to a breakdown of the latest figures, the MoD’s highest area of consultancy spending was on finance services, which accounted for £14m of the total. In second place was “strategy”, at £10m.
The MoD said spending on consultancy services related to “programme and project management” had seen the biggest decrease between 2014-15 and 2015-16 – down by £22 million. It did not specify the current level of spending on the category.
Overall, the MoD said its 2015-16 spending was £35.1 billion, an increase from the previous year’s £34.4 billion. The figures combine resources and capital spending minus depreciation.