To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department spent on commissioning public opinion research in each of the last five years. (105449)

Public opinion research is research specifically designed to assess the public's response to policy or services. When projects have a wider aim than this, it is not always possible to identify separately the elements of research that fall into this category. I have therefore included in the estimates in the table the total cost of those studies where opinions were sought, even when this formed only a portion of the research. Our records indicate the following levels of spending for 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07. We do not have sufficient information to provide comparable data for earlier years.