AQW 34786/22-27 Written question to the Minister of Education
To ask the Minister of Education to detail (i) all paid external advisor roles in his Department; and (ii) the amount spent on each, in each of the last 3 years.
Asked by Michelle Guy MLA on 5 November 2025
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 5 November 2025
- Answer due by
- 20 November 2025
- Answered
- 18 November 202513 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Education
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The details on i) all paid external advisor roles in the Department and the (ii) amount spent in each of the last three years is set out in the table below.
| Type of Advice | 2024-25 | 2023-24 | 2022-23 |
| £000 | £000 | £000 | |
| Legal Advice in respect of the Covid enquiry | 57 | 47 | - |
| Advice in relation to contract tendering, business cases, due diligence works on the contract tenderer, consultancy services and tax advice | 639 | 222 | 185 |
| Education Infrastructure Advice and Site evaluations | 652 | 585 | 1,909 |
| Legal Advice on capital schemes, leases and site purchases and disposals | 443 | 358 | 304 |
| Recruitment Competitions for Departmental Board members | 27 | 1 | - |
| Professional support provided in relation to the RAISE Programme | 70 | - | - |
| Numerous independent reviews of DE programmes and costs in relation to Independent Assessors and Ministerial Advisory Panel* | 715 | 297 | 385 |
| Total | 2,603 | 1,510 | 2,783 |
*The costs of reviews of DE programmes, independent assessors and the International Ministerial Advisory Panel have been consolidated, as providing this information for these individually could lead to the release of personal and commercially sensitive information.