FOI001547 FOI Finance

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to the council’s expenditure on management consultancy services, including services provided by the "Big Four" firms: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and KPMG.
For the financial years 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25, please provide the following information:
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1. Expenditure on the Big Four consultancies
•    Total amount spent with each of the following firms, broken down by financial year: PwC, EY, Deloitte, and KPMG.
•    The highest day rate paid to each of these firms in each financial year.
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2. Expenditure on other management consultants
•    Total amount spent on management consulting services excluding the Big Four, broken down by consultancy and financial year.
•    For each engagement, please include:
o    The name of the consultancy firm
o    The financial year of the expenditure
o    A brief description of the project or services provided (e.g. project title or internal reference)
o    The start and end dates of the engagement (or anticipated end date if ongoing)
o    The procurement route used (e.g. open competition, framework agreement, direct award) and the name of the procurement framework, if applicable
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3. Additional Information (if available without exceeding cost limits)
If it is possible within the cost limit:
•    Please state the number of individual consultants provided by each firm for each engagement.
•    Please indicate whether any deliverables
•    were produced (e.g. reports, action plans) and whether these are publicly available.
•    Please confirm whether any of the consultancy work covered tasks that would normally be performed by in-house council staff or roles that were vacant at the time.