With today’s report that the Government spends nearly £2bn a year on external consultants, often without adequately measuring value for money, Green Party Principal Speaker and London Mayor Candidate Siân Berry hit out at New Labour’s ingrained culture of ‘farming out’ public policy-making to private consultants.
"All along, the Green Party has never budged from our position that the Government would be much better off trusting the people who are already working within our public services. In the NHS, for example, nurses and doctors know what needs doing to improve public health – let’s not waste taxpayers’ money paying yet more consultants when the knowledge we need is already there.
"Gordon Brown lost any sense of initiative long ago, and farmed out his policy-making to a series of private consultants and ‘expert reviews’. The hundreds of millions spent on management consultants by the NHS is a particularly expensive way for public servants to avoid doing the jobs we elect them to do."
Stuart Jeffery, Green Party Health Spokesperson, branded levels of management consultancy in the NHS ‘obscene’: "The NHS is now the fourth largest user of management consultants and is spending around £170m on them this year.
"The exponential growth in the use of management consultants by the NHS is a clear example of the government’s commitment to its corporate friends – Blair and co really are in bed with these fat cats. With predictions of NHS deficits being greater than ever this year, this appalling practice must stop. Taxpayer’s money must go into front line services, not corporate and shareholder pockets."