Analysis from Tussell, a data provider on UK government contracts, indicates that the Cabinet Office has renewed each of its nine ‘EU Exit Programme Delivery’ contracts.
These were initially awarded in April 2018 and had been due to expire this month, but will now run until next April.
The renewed contracts were awarded to firms such as Deloitte, EY, PwC but entirely new contracts were also awarded to smaller firms.
The cost of renewing existing contracts amounted to £105m while brand new contracts signed by the department cost £54m – contributing to a total outlay of £159m.
Joint analysis from Tussell and the BBC in February revealed that the government had spent more than £100m on consultancy, research, legal services, recruitment and IT services.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “As a responsible government we have, and will continue to, draw on the expert advice of a range of specialists to deliver a successful and orderly exit from the European Union.”
In April, a cross-party group of MPs called on the government to address the threat that Brexit poses to local government.