To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission what the Electoral Commission’s Public Awareness Expenditure budget was in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07. (113957)

The Electoral Commission informs me that it spent £7.1 million on promoting public awareness of electoral and democratic systems in 2005-06 and that the current forecast expenditure for 2006-07 is £6.4 million.