To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many external contracts his Department held with public relations companies in each of the last 10 years; and what the total cost of those contracts was. (183168)

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) contracts and the resultant expenditure specifically for public relations, are not categorised separately from that for external consultancy as a whole. The information the hon. Member requests could, therefore, be provided only at disproportionate cost.

However, annual expenditure on external consultants or consultancies as a whole, is published in the FCO’s annual departmental reports, copies of which are available on the FCO website at:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029395438