Ernst & Young denies that major redundancies in IT consulting are planned

A consultation is underway, admits E&Y, but nothing of the scale reported

Enrst & Young (E&Y), the global accountancy firm that also runs a major IT consultancy practice, has denied reports that hundreds of UK-based IT roles are at risk in a major outsourcing move that it is planning.

Computing understands that initial reports apparently originated from leaked emails from the organisation, however it would appear that the actual numbers of roles likely to move, and therefore affected staff, were wildly exagerrated.

A spokesperson for EY said that there will be "minimal impact to roles and people".

"EY is focused on serving its clients around the world with its 250,000 people," said the spokesperson. "We seek to attract and retain an agile workforce, providing high-quality opportunities and experiences to our people, while retaining the flexibility to deliver exceptional work for our clients.

"In fact, in FY16 we hired 63,000 people globally - that's a person every eight minutes - including 4,000 people in the UK to meet the demand for new client services.

"Given the pace of technical innovation, we also routinely review our operations and practices to ensure we are serving our clients effectively, efficiently and embracing the latest innovations.

"Following a recent IT strategy review, we are transforming how we deliver certain IT services to provide market differentiation for our clients and our people.

"As part of this, there is a consultation underway in the UK and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the outcome, but it is our expectation that there will be minimal impact to roles and people, with the majority offered the same or a similar role in the UK.

"Our immediate priority is to communicate with our people and to support them," the spokesperson added.