FOI Request - Consultancy Engagements and Deliverables
Request 101003819090
Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I am requesting the following information regarding external consultants commissioned by the council for each of the three financial years (2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24):
1. Consultancy Engagements
For each engagement with an external consultant or consultancy firm during this period, please provide:
• Name of the consultant/firm
• Subject or scope of the engagement (e.g. digital transformation, housing strategy, finance review, organisational restructure)
• Cost of the engagement (total paid or contracted)
• Duration (from commission date to delivery date of final product)
• Department or team that commissioned the work
• Summary of final output or deliverable (e.g. report, strategy, assessment)
• Whether any internal review or follow-up was conducted
• Whether any value-for-money or impact assessment was carried out
2. Deliverables
Please provide a copy of each final report, strategy document, or other final deliverable resulting from these consultancy engagements, where available. Redactions may be made as necessary to protect personal data or commercially sensitive content, but full reports are requested under the public interest in transparency and spending accountability.
Response 26-09-2025
1. Following an extensive search, over 100 contracts with a value over £10,0000 that included “consultancy” in their title/description were identified. In addition, the individual departments supplied a list of more than 10 pages with consultant activities.
Many of these contracts will contain commercially sensitive information, as such they are exempt under Section 33 (1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002- commercial sensitivity. To determine which of the contract information is commercially sensitive and what could be given would require assessing each contract individually; this also applies to identifying deliverables and other details you are requesting, such as name, scope, cost, duration, review, assessments, as well as the team that commissioned the work. At over 100 instances of consultants used, this task is estimated to take more than 40 hours of staff time and would cost the Council in excess of £600. In accordance with Section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) - excessive cost, we are therefore unable to comply with this request.
Nonetheless, we confirm that information on some of the projects are in the public domain. Please find links to Air Quality Reports here: http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_1790.html and Community Safety Strategy here: http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file88031.pdf
Please note that the Council’s contract register, which is updated on a monthly basis, may provide some details, however, it does not highlight if a contract was for a consultancy engagement. Please find a link here: http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_101331.html
2. You requested a copy of each final report, strategy document, or other final deliverable resulting from these consultancy engagements.
Other than information that is in the public domain, this information is likely to be exempt under Section 33 (1)(b) of FOISA - commercial sensitivity, or the process to identify the non-confidential information would take in excess of 40 hours and the information would therefore be exempt under Section 12 of FOISA - excessive cost. In cases of Commercial Sensitivity, disclosure would be likely to prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person and it is not considered to be in the public interest to release this information, as there could be negative future complications that would impact the public purse and future developments.