FOI002548 FOI Finance

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information.
For the period 1 January 2020 to the present date, please confirm the total gross external spend incurred by the authority in each of the categories listed below.
A single total figure for the whole period is sufficient.
If easier, the information may instead be provided as annual totals by financial year.
Expenditure categories
1.    Consultancy and advisory services: All external consultancy or advisory spend, as recorded by the authority, including management, strategy, transformation, policy, or specialist advisory services.
2.    Legal services: All external legal spend, including solicitors, barristers, litigation, claims, and legal advice.
3.    Recruitment, agency, and interim services: External recruitment agencies, executive search firms, interim placements, and related fees including spend on agency or temporary staff supplied by third-party providers.  .
4.    Other external professional services: All other external professional services not included above, as recorded by the authority (e.g. audit, accountancy, communications/PR, design, research, IT or technical advisory services).
5.    Staff training and development (external): External spend on staff training, development programmes, conferences, courses, or professional accreditation (excluding internal staffing costs).
6.    Marketing, advertising, and publicity (external): External spend on advertising, marketing, publicity, campaigns, media buying, branding, or promotional activity (excluding staff costs).
7.    Office accommodation and facilities management: Spend on office accommodation and facilities, including rent, maintenance, utilities, estate management, and related property costs.
Clarification to minimise effort
•    This request is for high-level aggregate figures only.
•    I am not requesting transaction-level data, invoices, supplier lists, or service-by-service breakdowns.
•    The information may be provided using existing central finance records, cost codes, or budget headings.
•    No apportionment, reconciliation, or manual collation across departments is required.
•    Where categories are not held exactly as described, the closest available aggregate figure is acceptable.
Please provide the information in any simple tabular format.