Government spends at least £97m on Brexit consultants

The government has spent at least £97m on external Brexit consultants amid confusion over total consultancy spending, an official investigation has found.

The National Audit Office said Cabinet Office figures showed £65m of spending on consultants in the year to April 2019. It found another £32m in a sample of other departments.

Government departments were unprepared for the scale and complexity of trying to plan for Britain's departure from the EU. In early 2018, the Cabinet Office established processes for departments to request outside help to fill skills gaps and work on projects.

Cabinet Office figures showed overall spending on consultants increased by £1bn to £1.5bn from 2015-16 to 2017-18. But departments' annual reports listed only £332m of consultancy costs in 2017-18, up from a reported £134m in 2015-16.

"Cabinet Office informed the NAO that it was working to understand these differences and was planning to review trends in departments’ spending on consultancy and other professional services," NAO said.

Departments did not meet transparency standards expected by government when publishing details of contracts for Brexit consultants, NAO said.

On average, departments took 119 days to basic details of Brexit consultant contracts compared with 82 days for all consultant contracts. Government guidance is that details should be published within 90 days.

Six consultancy firms did 96% of Brexit work under the Cabinet Office arrangements, NAO said. Deloitte did 22% of the work with PA Consulting, PwC, Ernst & Young, Bain & Co and Boston Consulting sharing the rest.