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Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food;Central Science Laboratory

Answer

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the number, nature and value of contracts awarded by his Department to Coopers and Lybrand, KPMG, Price Waterhouse, Ernst and Young, Deloitte and Touche, Arthur Andersen, Grant Thornton, BDO Stoy Hayward, Pannel Kerr Forster, and Robson Rhodes and their subsidiaries and associates, during 1995 and 1996. [37317] Mr. Boswell: During the financial year 1995-96, my Department entered into two contracts with Deloitte Touche, both in connection with the Department's data communications strategy study, at a total cost of £130,988. One contract with BDO Stoy Hayward dealt with the monitoring of Dairy Crest activities for 1993-94 and April-October 1995, and one contract with Ernst and Young was concerned with the implementation of the Ministry's resource accounting and management information system. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, I cannot disclose the value of these two contracts. There were no contracts with the other companies named in the question. ADAS employed the services of KPMG for a benchmarking seminar, Price Waterhouse for a privatisation feasibility project and Grant Thornton for VAT advice. The aggregate value of these three contracts was £7,002. The Veterinary Laboratories Agency spent £18,689.35 in the calendar year 1995 with Price Waterhouse. This was all for merger-associated work including strategy development for the new agency. No other contracts were entered into with the organisations named in the period referred to. I have asked the chief executive of Central Science Laboratory to provide a separate reply in respect of his use of the consultancy firms concerned. Letter from P. I. Stanley to Mr. Austin Mitchell, dated 16 October 1996: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your question about contracts awarded to given companies and their subsidiaries and associates during the financial year 1995/96, as this is an operational matter for which I am responsible.[37317] During the year in question two contracts totalling £6147 in value were awarded to Price Waterhouse for work involving a Review of Future Management and a Team Building Workshop. No contracts were awarded to any of the other companies listed.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

37317; 282 c1118W;282 c1116W

Session

1995-96

Subjects

Contracts Executive agencies Consultants Expenditure Subsidiary companies Management consultants Coopers and Lybrand EY Price Waterhouse Pannell Kerr Forster Arthur Andersen Deloitte and Touche BDO Stoy Hayward Robson Rhodes Grant Thornton Management Consultants Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food