To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what expenditure has been incurred by his (a) Department, (b) agencies and (c) non-departmental bodies in 2002 on (i) opinion polling, (ii) focus groups and (iii) other forms of market research; and if he will list the surveys commissioned and the purpose of each. [106275]
The Government want to hear what people have to say about proposed new policies and ideas and are committed to obtaining the best value for money. Public opinion research, including focus groups and polling, is subject to the usual strict rules that spending must represent good value for the tax payer and must not be used for party political purposes.
Information on the totality of quantitative and qualitative surveys carried out by the Ministry of Defence and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, the central corporate communications division carries out public opinion research relating to the Department as a whole and does have a record of research that they initiated. The following surveys were conducted during the financial year 2002–03 (costs are provisional and subject to final audit and are inclusive of VAT):
£
| |
| MOD quantitative research | 38,958.75 |
| Public attitudes to defence surveys | 16,536.95 |
| Media coverage evaluation | 21,749.25 |
| MOD image focus groups | 2,162.00 |
| Iraq media monitoring | 5,287.50 |
| Total cost | 84,694.45 |