Central government’s use of consultants podcast transcript
What’s this report about?
This report looks at how central government– which includes agencies and quangos – uses consultancy services. Consultancy services include hiring external specialists, outsourcing work and employing people on short term contracts. In doing this report, we examined how central government plans, buys and manages consultants and we’ve identified ways these organisations can make savings.                            
What have you found?
We found that central government spends around £114 million a year on consultancy services. These services can range from IT consultants designing a computer system for example, to specialists working on the refurbishment of Stirling Castle. We found that by planning and buying consultancy services better central government can save up to £13 million a year.
If central government bodies plan their work better they use consultants’ knowledge and skills where it brings greatest value for money. 
The public image of using consultants is that a department brings in these people, pays them lots of money and it’s not clear what they actually. Why do public bodies use consultants and what do they get for that?
Government bodies are using consultants for lots of different things. For example, they could be bringing in a specialist for a short term project because their staff don’t have the skills to do the work and it’s cheaper to bring a consultant in than to try to employ a new member of staff. They also outsource some of the services, like payroll services, because it’s cheaper and easier to use an organisation that already do that than try and repeat it yourself. They can use consultants to cover things like maternity leave and sick leave.
We found the main reason for using consultants was because the staff didn’t have the skills or expertise needed, but there can be lots of different reasons. 
You said central government bodies could save up to £13 million a year by improving how they use consultants. Could you explain some of the ways they can do that?
Central government spends around £114 million a year on consultancy services and we’ve estimated that about £13 million of that could be saved if they used different ways of buying consultants and better planning of when they use them.
We think that if they had better information about when they’re using consultants and why, and that would make sure they bring consultants in when they’re going to get best value from them.
We think they should also take advantage of the opportunities to learn from consultants so that in the future they can reduce their use.
When we looked at how they buy consultants, we thought they were following good practice on that. But again, when we looked at some of the competitions, they’re spending a bit too much time and effort on that and there are opportunities there to make savings.
What would you like to see happen now a result of your report?
We make a number of recommendations in the report and I’d like to highlight a number of these here. 
First of all, central government bodies need to improve how they control when and how they use consultants by ensuring that they use consultants only where they are needed most.
Secondly, central government also needs to make sure it takes advantage of opportunities to learn from consultants, where appropriate to do so.
Finally, central government should use competition efficiently when hiring consultants.