Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers

Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) President Sir Hugh Orde has defended his organisation's spending on consultants as "peanuts".

Recently Acpo came under pressure after it was revealed it paid large consultancy fees, some up to £1,100 per day, to former police chiefs.

Acpo has since launched a review of how the amounts were reached and how the consultants were selected - but in an interview with the Huffington Post UK Orde rejected the claim of "corruption" made by a backbench MP.

"Our expenditure on consultants is peanuts," he said. "If you look at what government spends on consultants, we hardly spend anything on consultancy, it's not a big story, it's a mischievous story."

"If you want an expert on policing and you have no capacity in the organisation - who are the best people to deliver it? Quite often cops," he said.

However Orde said he had "widened" the inquiry into how the consultants are appointed, and how much they are paid.

Orde said Acpo could soon face a financial crisis of its own, Orde said, after the Home Office decided to pull its funding.

What will Orde do? "Well perhaps you'll see it - ACPO sponsored by the Huffington Post," he joked. " No, what I shall do is go back to government and ask some fairly hard questions."