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Departmental Expenditure

Volume 461: debated on Monday 18 June 2007

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 4 December 2006, Official Report, column 196W, on departmental expenditure, what payments have been made by his Department to (a) Opinion Leader Research and (b) other opinion research companies since December 2006. (136309)

In December 2006, the Economic Secretary commissioned Brian Pomeroy, chairman of the Financial Inclusion Taskforce, to undertake a review of commercially run hamper schemes and savings clubs to consider whether the savings needs of consumers of such products might be better met by mainstream financial providers. As part of the review, HM Treasury commissioned Opinion Leader to carry out two half-day workshops with consumers of these types of products to gain first hand evidence to support the review at a cost of £50,955 including VAT. A response to (b) could be provided only at disproportionate cost as the nature of a supplier’s business is not recorded in the Treasury’s accounting system and may not be self evident from the supplier’s name.