To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which consultancy firms have been engaged by his Department to provide advice on the funding of Royal Mail over the last 12 months; and what the projected cost of each such contract is. (167134)

In the last 12 months, my Department has engaged Deloitte, Herbert Smith, Credit Suisse and Strategia on work relating to the Government’s funding for Royal Mail. The collective costs for the 12 months to end October 2007 were £3.8 million. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it would not be appropriate to break this down to the individual costs for each adviser.