To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her estimate is of the expenditure of her Department on newspapers, magazines and periodicals in 2002. [106296]

My Department's expenditure on newspapers, magazines and periodicals for 2002/03 is in the order of £536,732. These figures are provisional and subject to final audit.This includes expenditure on national daily and Sunday newspapers, regional papers, mass circulation magazines and journals, and academic periodicals. It also includes expenditure on annual publications, in particular reference works that would not normally be considered as periodicals. It is not possible to exclude such annual publications, except at disproportionate cost.