Mayor answers to London

LDA consultants

[Main question]

Question by Dee Doocey

Can you let me have the number of consultants employed by the LDA and the total value of consultant fees over the last three financial years, by year, and whether any of the consultants were previous employees (and if so how many)?

Answer by Boris Johnson

The LDA has contracted with 816 consultancy suppliers over the last 3 financial years. The total value of these consultancy fees broken down by year equates to the following:

06/07 - £19,862,675.11

07/08 - £34,388,964.76

08/09 - £34,106,197.72

The LDA’s use of consultants is focused primarily on activities linked to the land and property development transactions, including Masterplanning and design, research, business support programmes and legal and audit functions. A significant aspect of spend over the past 3 years is associated with Olympic land assembly.

The LDA needs to conduct a detailed cross referencing exercise over the three year period in order to provide information on the numbers of consultants who may have previously been employed as LDA staff. Due to the complex nature of this task, this exercise could not be completed within the timeframe given.