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Boris Johnson’s government is tacitly working to create its own in-house consultancy, called Crown Consultancy, to reduce reliance on high-profile private sector companies.

The idea, spearheaded by Efficiency Secretary Theodore Agnew and championed by Downing Street advisor Dominic Cummings, would bring smart officials and graduates together in a new department to improve policy implementation across Whitehall.

“There is a huge reliance on consulting firms,” ​​said an official close to the project. “It would make sense to look into what we can do internally and not externally.”

There have long been concerns about the rising costs the government is spending on consultants. The UK spent a total of £ 2.6 billion on just eight consulting firms between 2016 and 2020, according to research firm Tussell. These were the four big accountants PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY; US consulting giants McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group; and the UK group PA Consulting.

Lord Agnew, a former businessman now in the cabinet office, alleged in a leaked letter last month that Whitehall was “infantilized” by “unacceptable” reliance on expensive advisors.

It is a good idea. We should do more internally

He said their widespread use “robbed” public officials of experience working on complex projects. Francis Maude, a former cabinet minister, also conducts a brief overview of government functions such as human resources, property management, and project management.

An in-house Crown Consultancy operation would recruit young graduates to work with talented civil servants and some private sector recruits to help manage government projects.

While the public service is unable to compete on salaries like the Big Four, many graduates choose to begin their careers in Whitehall before bringing their government knowledge to the private sector.

Mr Cummings called on project managers to apply for jobs at the heart of government in January – part of his Weirdos and Misfits blog – saying that only a small group of people in the world are great at work.

“It is obvious that improving government requires huge improvements in project management. The first project will be to improve the people and skills that are already here, ”he wrote at the time.

Government officials said the name Crown Consultancy had not been agreed and work on the proposed new body was at a relatively early stage. “It’s a good idea,” said one. “We should do more internally.”

This year alone, PwC received £ 180 million for its public sector advisory work. This makes PwC 2020 the UK’s largest single beneficiary of consulting contracts.

The total included fees of more than £ 120 million from central government departments as well as fees from the NHS, local authorities and national railways. Deloitte, EY and KPMG have made a combined £ 361 million from public sector advisory services this year.

Dozens of lucrative contracts have been awarded to the Big Four, despite concerns about the quality of their work for a number of collapsed businesses and accounting scandals such as Carillion, BHS, Tesco, and Thomas Cook, as well as political and regulatory actions they take to disrupt their businesses.

Consultant spending has grown rapidly in the four years since the UK voted to leave the EU. Between 2016 and 2018, fees paid to private companies tripled from around £ 500m to £ 1.5bn, according to the National Audit Office.

This year, coronavirus has deepened concerns about the cost of reliance on large consulting firms for large public projects. The government spent more than £ 175 million on business consultants during the pandemic, with the largest amounts going to PwC, which has earned around £ 24 million, and Deloitte, which has won contracts valued at around £ 23 million.

Some of the consulting contracts have come under fire for the services they provide. Deloitte has been tasked with managing PPE procurement for hospitals and support test sites, but has been criticized for a number of administrative errors and delays in delivering the kit.

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Others questioned the value of a £ 560,000 contract with McKinsey to deliberate on the “vision, purpose and narrative” of the English testing program.

The level of corporate use has long drawn criticism. A 2016 report by the National Audit Office showed that consultants typically cost government departments twice as much as their peers who are permanent employees.

Daily rates for consultants advising on government projects can reach thousands of pounds a day. Executives at Boston Consulting Group, one of the top three US consulting firms, were charged around £ 7,000 a day to the government to work on developing the UK’s test-and-trace system.

Many government officials work for consulting firms throughout their careers, resulting in close ties between the city and Westminster. Last year, PwC hired Gavin Barwell, former Theresa May’s chief of staff, and Philip Rycroft, who headed the UK’s Brexit unit. Large consulting firms regularly hire out staff to delegate to government agencies.