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Mass Media

Volume 487: debated on Monday 9 February 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost of his Department's contracts with press monitoring services was in each year since it was established. (251173)

The Ministry of Justice was created in May 2007. The cost for press monitoring services in 2007-08 was £103,385.63.

Media monitoring services include clippings of newspaper articles on subjects relevant to the Department that are compiled on a daily basis and summaries of broadcast news programmes throughout the day. It is important to monitor the climate of opinion so policy development can take place in the fullest context. Media monitoring is one way to do this and also provides useful instant feedback on policy announcements.

In common with other Government Departments of a similar size, the Ministry of Justice also monitors a wide range of media to ensure Government policy is reported accurately to the public to enable clear understanding of the work of Government and that inaccuracies are spotted and corrected.