The three-year arrangement, covering 2026 to 2028, will provide training for civil servants in areas including artificial intelligence and other skills. KPMG has been awarded a contract with a maximum value of £319 million, while EY’s portion is worth up to £137 million.
The contract replaces an existing civil service training arrangement that is due to expire and is intended as a temporary measure ahead of the government’s planned transition to an in-house training model, known as a “national school for government.” The government says the eventual in-house system will reduce its reliance on external providers.
The award has attracted scrutiny because it comes two years after the Labour government pledged to halve spending on consultants and save taxpayers more than £1.2 billion by 2026.
Government procurement data provider Tussell said the new deal is the largest single contract awarded to a Big Four consulting firm since its records began in 2012. The previous largest was a £322 million maximum-value contract awarded to PwC by the Foreign Office in 2012.
Tussell data cited in the report also showed that the government has awarded £1.25 billion in contracts to Big Four firms so far this year, exceeding the £1.06 billion recorded for the whole of the previous year. Nineteen contracts worth more than £100 million each have been awarded to Big Four firms since Labour made its 2024 pledge, accounting for almost half of the largest such contracts.
However, the government has defended the arrangement, arguing that it is a training contract rather than a consultancy contract and that it will help address skills gaps within the civil service, particularly in artificial intelligence.
