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National Consumer Council

Volume 455: debated on Tuesday 9 January 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on what occasions the National Consumer Council has challenged Government decisions in the courts since May 1997, in cases where all proceedings are complete. (109322)

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what research projects have been undertaken by the National Consumer Council funded from the public purse since May 1997; and at what cost. (109335)

The National Consumer Council (NCC) consists of three Councils: the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) based in Glasgow, the Welsh Consumer Council (WCC) based in Cardiff, and NCC London.

A list of research projects has been placed in the Library of the House.

The Department pays the NCC in the form of annual grant in aid as shown in the following table; this covers the vast majority of its costs and is not identified on a project-by-project basis.

A comparable set of figures is not available owing to changes to accounting rules for non-departmental public bodies with cash-based allocations until 2002-03, and resource based allocations since then. The total budget includes both the resource/grant in aid from DTI and income from (in the past DTI and) other sources that is for specific projects. An example of the major sources is given for last year. Fuller information on sources and amounts involved is detailed in annual reports available in the Library of the House.

Approximately 15 per cent. of NCC’s grant in aid is allocated to SCC, then 11 per cent. to WCC, leaving 74 per cent. to be spent in London.

Resource budget (£ million) (DTI DEL)

Cash budget (£ million) (rounded to £000)

NCC total budget (£ million) (rounded to £100,000)

2006-07

3.528

13.541

2005-06

3.932

23.779

35.9

2004-05

4.059

24.039

5.0

2003-04

3.565

23.973

5.6

2002-03

3.682

5.1

2001-02

3.565

4.5

2000-01

3.084

3.6

1999-2000

2.587

3.3

1998-99

2.366

3.0

1997-98

2.425

3.2

1 Indicative

2 Cash supplied

3 For example included £897,000 from Scottish Executive and £45,000 from DEFRA