Crudely, I would estimate one professional to cost £100k per year. Outsourcing money used for hiring would equate to 2,400 staff. That could be a mix of skills, such as radiologists, nurses, SW/ML engineers and data scientists. I’d argue you can get a lot done with that money if you know what you are doing.

I’m sure they’ve done decent cost/benefit analysis instead of saying building our own capability is too difficult. I’m sure my taxes are being wisely spent.

Two party system must come down, here in the UK and anywhere else it’s dominating politics. Proportional representation inevitably leads to much more balanced governments and better politicians in power. Not perfect, but better.