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  • Transport Consultancy Spending by Department For Transport

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    John Siraut
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    Where to cut? Paradoxically, only now as we come out of recession has the realisation that we have run out of money started to sink in. The UK’s public sector debt has balloo ned out of control in the last few years and the government has made it clear th at we are in for years of reduced public spending. The first round of cuts, which only amount to 1% of public spending and which ar e just a foretaste of what is to come, is already causing angst in a number of q uarters. Follow Colin Buchanan on twitter http://twitter.com/cbuchanancubed Read Colin Buchanan's blog at http://colinbuchanan.wordpress.com/

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    Transport consultancy spending by Department for Transport

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    Where to cut? Paradoxically, only now as we come out of recession has the realisation that we have run out of money started to sink in. The UK’s public sector debt has balloo ned out of control in the last few years and the government has made it clear th at we are in for years of reduced public spending. The first round of cuts, which only amount to 1% of public spending and which ar e just a foretaste of what is to come, is already causing angst in a number of q uarters. Follow Colin Buchanan on twitter http://twitter.com/cbuchanancubed Read Colin Buchanan's blog at http://colinbuchanan.wordpress.com/

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    45 views1 page

    Transport Consultancy Spending by Department For Transport

    Uploaded by

    John Siraut
    Where to cut? Paradoxically, only now as we come out of recession has the realisation that we have run out of money started to sink in. The UK’s public sector debt has balloo ned out of control in the last few years and the government has made it clear th at we are in for years of reduced public spending. The first round of cuts, which only amount to 1% of public spending and which ar e just a foretaste of what is to come, is already causing angst in a number of q uarters. Follow Colin Buchanan on twitter http://twitter.com/cbuchanancubed Read Colin Buchanan's blog at http://colinbuchanan.wordpress.com/

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    Where to cut?

    Paradoxically, only now as we come out of recession has the realisation that we
    have run out of money started to sink in. The UKs public sector debt has balloo
    ned out of control in the last few years and the government has made it clear th
    at we are in for years of reduced public spending.
    The first round of cuts, which only amount to 1% of public spending and which ar
    e just a foretaste of what is to come, is already causing angst in a number of q
    uarters. HM Treasury has issued a circular asking that consultancy spend is curt
    ailed within the public sector; in particular it requires that all new consultan
    cy assignments over 20,000 to have prior Ministerial approval.
    We have also seen the publication of the COINS (Combined Online Information Syst
    em) which is the government s central accounting system. It sheds more light on
    what is spent by each government department and spending programme and contains
    some 24m records. The Guardian has helpfully published some data in a way that c
    an be easily navigated see coins.guardian.co.uk/coins-explorer/search.
    Total spend by central government, in 2009-10, on consultants came to 1.8bn of
    which the Department of Transport and its agencies spent 132m, (this compares t
    o their annual wages bill of around 550m). Breaking this down by mode or purpos
    e shows consultancy spend of:
    0.5m on road performance and strategy,
    0.6m on powershift and the cleaner vehicles programme,
    0.6m on sustainable distribution,
    1.1m on shipping,
    1.3m on road safety,
    1.4m on aviation,
    1.7m on transport statistics,
    1.9m on Transport Direct,
    4.1m on transport security,
    6.4m on cycling and
    14.6m by rail group central admin,
    22.7m by central admin and an eye watering;
    63.4m on rail franchising.
    Whether the total amount spent or the proportionate split by mode is appropriate
    Ill leave others to judge. However, those who have grown rich on providing ad
    vice on rail franchising are unlikely to be too worried by the new Treasury guid
    ance unlike those who are working on research into sustainable travel, spend on
    which is more likely to be seen as discretionary.
    Those looking to COINS to spot wasteful spending within the departments budge
    t are likely to be disappointed as the raw data is not that revealing. However,
    you may be interested to note that the department and its agencies spent 5.6m o
    n contract and agency staff, 5.1m on new dwellings and improvements to existing
    dwellings, 203m on the Olympics, 20.8m on road safety publicity and 76m on P
    FI finance leases.
    So where should the Department of Transport find savings over the next five year
    s, answers on a postcard to a Mr G Osborne please.
    More from John Siraut at twitter.com/cbuchanancubed

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