To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on stationery provision in respect of paper items in each of the last five years. [8867]

This information is not separately recorded in the Home Office accounting system, but details provided by our two main suppliers of general stationery indicate that approximately £600,000, excluding value added tax, was spent on paper items in the calendar year 1996.Additional, but smaller, orders would have been placed with various other suppliers, but details of these and information about previous years are not available except at disproportionate cost.