Defence ministry doubled its spending on outside consultancy since last year trends now Defence ministry doubled its spending on outside consultancy since last year, splashing out an additional £135million By Harriet Line For The Daily Mail Published: 00:29 GMT, 21 January 2023 | Updated: 00:30 GMT, 21 January 2023 Viewcomments Defence spending on outside consultants more than doubled to £245million last year, figures show. Despite cutting back on frontline forces, the department has spent as much on experts since 2020 as it would cost to build a frigate. The figure is up from £110million in 2020-21 – an increase of £135million in a year, according to the department’s accounts. The cost of temporary staff also skyrocketed by more than £60million in the past year, according to MoD accounts. Senior Tory MP Sir John Redwood (above) said: ‘We’ve got to be very careful not to spend all our money on management consultants and not enough on the frontline Last year Labour published a ‘dossier’ of waste in the MoD, which claimed the department had wasted at least £13billion in taxpayers’ money since 2010. Examples of waste included overspent procurements, write-offs, contract cancellations, unplanned extensions and admin errors Yet spending on service personnel has dropped by £120million in the past year to £10.39billion. And 10,000 Army troops are to be cut by 2025. Senior Tory MP Sir John Redwood said: ‘We’ve got to be very careful not to spend all our money on management consultants and not enough on the frontline – I just hope they got value for money.’ An MoD spokesman said: ‘The MoD uses consultancy services when external expertise is essential – which can include matters of national security – or provides better value for taxpayers’ money.’ ‘This spending is subject to rigorous scrutiny before approval.’ Last year Labour published a ‘dossier’ of waste in the MoD, which claimed the department had wasted at least £13billion in taxpayers’ money since 2010. Examples of waste included overspent procurements, write-offs, contract cancellations, unplanned extensions and admin errors. Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility