To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much was spent on salaries for press and communications officers in (a) his Department, (b) its NDPBs and (c) its agencies in each of the last three years. (224548)

The information is as follows.

(a) The Department for Children, Schools and Families was established in June 2007 and as a result we are only able to provide information from June 2007 to March 2008. The salary cost for employing press officers in the Department was £906,462 and the cost of employing communications officers was £2,582,579.

(b) The Department does not have any agencies.

(c) We do not hold costs for our non-departmental public bodies.