An investigation by market intelligence platform Tussell found that the UK government has awarded KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC over £1.5bn in public contracts so far in 2026. This sum surpasses the £1.04bn awarded to these firms in the whole of 2025.
The current year marks the second most successful calendar year for the Big Four since Tussell began recording in 2012, with only 2020, during the height of the pandemic, seeing more contracting.
Deloitte secured £650m across 108 contracts, primarily in IT services, digital transformation, and data analytics. This included a £200m contract for the Home Office Digital’s Data Services and Analytics (DSA) unit. KPMG and EY jointly won the largest single contract, valued at £456m, from the Cabinet Office for civil servant training over the next two years.
KPMG secured over £413m in government contract work, placing it second among the Big Four. EY followed with an overall value of £260m, while PwC ranked fourth with over £211m.
The increase in government spending follows a 2024 Labour pledge to reduce taxpayer spending on external consultants. In November 2024, the government announced plans for greater procurement control, aiming to save £1.2bn by 2026 by freezing non-essential consultancy hires and targeting a 50 per cent spend reduction in subsequent years. However, the government faces a civil service skills shortage, particularly in digital transformation.
Tamzen Isacsson, chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), stated that consultants are playing a vital role in helping government improve public services and that their specialist expertise is in demand in areas such as digital transformation, cybersecurity, AI, and organisational change. Emma Carroll, principal consultant at Source Global Research, noted that consultants are often brought in for complex projects requiring specific expertise where internal talent is lacking, citing cybersecurity, technology implementation, and data readiness work as examples.