FOI Reveals 38% Drop In Police Consultancy Spend

A Freedom of Information request to North Wales Police has revealed that spending on consultants has dropped by 38% in three years.

The FOI asked for specific breakdowns on different types of consultancies however the response said such a search would require looking at over 1,000 invoices and therefore would not be covered under the FOI legislation – which states a ‘appropriate level’ of cost, which can translate into time, to recover the information.

Despite this and as a ‘gesture of good will’ general information was given, based off a generic “All Consultants Fees” code used to identify invoices internally.

The full data breakdown was given as:

2009/2010 £875,866
2010/2011 £515,434
2011/2012 £335,624

The total spend in the three years given amounts to £1,726,924.

The FOI itself was technically refused, despite the data above being provided.