To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the cost to his Department of undertaking and publishing a research study on local authority traveller sites in Scotland. [7473]

The contract for the research study recently published about local authority sites for travellers was awarded by The Scottish Office Development Department to a private research consultancy on the basis of competitive tenders. The contract price was £9,999.25 and the additional cost to the Department of printing 140 copies of the research report and 160 copies of a summary was £443.38.