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Departmental Public Participation

Volume 476: debated on Tuesday 3 June 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what consultants have been contracted by his Department to conduct public participation activities in the last three years; and how much expenditure his Department has incurred on each such contract to date. (206219)

The information requested is in the following table.

Name of public participation activity

Name of consultancy

Cost of activity (£)

What they were commissioned to do

2005

Democratic Engagement: Digital Dialogues

Hansard Society

34,200

The Digital Dialogues project investigates the use of online technologies (weblogs, webchats and forums) to promote dialogue between central Government and the public. Examples include online discussion forums on the openness of the family courts at the then DCA. Each stage of the project is followed by an evaluation report

2006

Draft Coroners Bill: Users’ experience of the coroners’ courts

Ipsos-MORI

11,500

Survey to gather information on recent users’ experience of, and satisfaction with, coroners’ services

Draft Coroners Bill: Public Pre-Legislative Scrutiny by Bereaved People’s Panel

Opinion Leader Research

15,500

Workshop to enable members of the public with recent experience of the coroners’ service to give feedback to the Government on the measures in the draft Coroners Bill

Draft Coroners Bill: Service families’ experiences of the inquest process

Opinion Leader Research

4,700

Event to gather information about the experiences of Iraq service families who had gone through the inquest process

Democratic Engagement: Youth Event—Solent Theatre

Solent People’s Theatre

5,700

Facilitated event for Ministerial Youth Outreach Programme hosted by Bridget Prentice as Minister for Youth Engagement. This interactive event called ‘Youth Shout: Your Voice Counts’ was attended by 143 young people (most from primary schools), 19 MPs and 41 councillors

Democratic Engagement: Radiowaves

Synergy TV

5,700

Radiowaves Voice It! pilot. Project to encourage and equip 11 to 18-year-olds to become citizen journalists and hold interviews with decision-makers which are published on the Radiowaves website and shared with a global audience

Democratic Engagement: Digital Dialogues

Hansard Society

37,400

Phase 2—Report on second phase published in September 2007

2007

Democratic Engagement

Hansard Society

35,400

Digital Dialogues Phase 3—ongoing

Democratic Engagement

Involve

17,500

‘Participation Partners’: Bespoke coaching support from expert participation practitioners (Involve) to assist with all aspects of public engagement exercises; project evaluation and case studies to be disseminated across government

NOMS consultation: NOMS Strategic Plan for Reducing Reoffending

Frameworks Ltd.

25,000

Organisation and running of national stakeholder consultation event

Consultation on: NOMS Believing we can

CLINKS (third sector organisation)

10,000

Ran two faith stakeholder events in the North West

NOMS consultation: NOMS Third Sector Strategy

CLINKS

20,000

Ran four third sector stakeholder events

Joint consultation events for Believing we can/NOMS Third Sector Strategy

Futures Unlocked (third sector organisation)

19,000

Ran consultation events and developed third sector and faith alliances in the East Midlands

Joint consultation events for Believing we can/NOMS Third Sector Strategy

Lincolnshire Action Trust (third sector organisation)

18,950

Ran consultation events and developed third sector and faith alliances in the East Midlands

Consultation on MOJ Third Sector Strategy

Sand Resources Ltd.

35,000

35 days’ consultancy work. Contracted to draft MOJ consultation paper, help analyse responses and help produce final strategy paper. Also contracted to help analyse responses to NOMS Third Sector Action Plan and help develop final NOMS Action Plan called ‘Working with the Third Sector to reduce reoffending 2008-2011’

Draft Coroners Bill: Reporting restrictions in coroners; courts

Opinion Leader Research

8,000

Workshop to reach consensus among key stakeholders (including media and voluntary group representatives and coroners) on the Bill’s reporting restrictions proposals

OCJR consultation: Improving the criminal justice process for young witnesses

Ipsos MORI

1,000

Workshops on proposals for young witnesses

OCJR consultation: Improving the criminal justice process for young witnesses

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children NSPCC (third sector organisation)

1,000

Workshops on proposals for young witnesses

Democratic Engagement: Radiowaves

Synergy TV

148,750

Radiowaves Voice It! roll-out. The objective of Radiowaves is to help young people develop the knowledge they need to confidently get involved in democratic processes

Democratic Engagement: www.peopleandparticipation.net

Involve

15,100

Website jointly funded with Communities and Local Government to provide practical help and advice for Government officials on public participation methods etc.

The Insight Project

Ipsos MORI and Promise

2200,000

Initiative to assess awareness of and attitudes towards Human Rights among both the general public and staff in public services in the Health and Social Care sectors

Human Rights Campaign

Four Communications

31,050

Four Communications were engaged to assist the Campaign Team to strengthen awareness of the Human Rights Act 1998. This involved identifying opportunities for speeches, articles and interviews by MOJ Ministers on the Human Rights Act as well as designing promotional material such as a leaflet promoting the Human Rights Act

2008

NOMS consultation on Best Value in Probation NOMS (2008)

Quatrosystem Ltd.

3,000

Facilitate two events for third sector, private sector and public sector providers of criminal justice services and provide feedback

1 Grant funding.

2 First payments of this sum made in 2006.

Notes:

1. The following sums are not considered by the Department as relevant for inclusion:

Sums paid to the Central Office of Information (COI), as it is a Crown body and Government Department.

Sums paid to consultants who advised on the procurement of public participation activities rather than conducting the public participation activities themselves.

2. The figures given are generally rounded to the nearest 100 and inclusive of VAT.