Lord Warner, the health minister, was forced to apologise after falsely denying that his department was employing psychologists to mentor senior staff.

He has now confirmed that the Department of Health spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on two executive coaching companies, Praesta and ER Consultants. Two months ago, in a written parliamentary answer, he denied that the department had held any contracts with the two companies.

Warner blamed the mistake on “human error” and claimed that some of the payments were made after he answered the question.

But opposition politicians said they were losing faith in the government’s honesty.

Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, the Liberal Democrat peer who highlighted the use of life coaches in Whitehall, said: “This is a disgrace. How difficult can it be to check whether you are employing life coaches or not? We are on a slippery slope for parliamentary scrutiny.”

Warner was questioned about the health department’s use of life coaching companies in September, after The Sunday Times revealed that a string of government departments were employing psychologists to help senior staff cope with the pressures of government.

The personal coaches are paid an estimated £250 an hour to act as “critical friends” to ministers and senior mandarins, using techniques such as role play to boost their confidence.

In a written answer on September 14, Warner denied his department had held any contracts with ER Consultants or Praesta in any of the past three financial years.

However, in a letter to Oakeshott last week, copied to the Speaker of the House of Lords for the record, Warner said: “I regret that the answer I gave . . . was inaccurate . . . This was caused by human error when extracting data from the department’s accounting system and was not a deliberate attempt to provide misleading information.”

Publishing misleading or false answers to written parliamentary questions is a breach of government rules and is regarded as a grave offence at Westminster.

Warner wrote: “Please be assured that I do not underestimate the seriousness of the situation and I am deeply sorry for the confusion caused.”

The health department now admits it paid £22,530 to ER Consultants in September this year, and £45,237 to Praesta last year.

However, Whitehall’s overall spending on life coaches is much higher. Written answers about the use of life coaches in other government departments suggest the two payments are just a small part of the total.

Bridget Prentice, a minister in the department for constitutional affairs, admitted that her department had a £220,000 contract with Praesta for “coaching programmes and leadership” training.

Alan Duncan, the shadow trade secretary, said: “Good for Lord Warner having the decency to come clean, but what is really disturbing is that the initial answer was totally untrue.

“Many of us have lost faith in the government’s trustworthiness when it comes to written answers.”

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