£314m bill for NHS consultants

The NHS in England spent more than 300m on management consultants in the last year, figures showed today.

The cost is almost the same as the amount spent on skin and lung cancer services combined, the data for 2009-10 showed.

The Government released the figures to show how much was spent on management consultants – as well as advice from architects, lawyers and surveyors – in the last year of the Labour government.

Overall, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities spent 313.9m on consultancy services.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "I am staggered by the scale of the expenditure on management consultants in the NHS."