To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what payments for (a) polling and (b) other services his Department has made to (i) Deborah Mattinson and (ii) Opinion Leader Research Limited since 31 December 2007; and if he will make a statement. (261059)

No payments have been made centrally by the MOD to either Deborah Mattinson or Opinion Leader Research Limited since December 2007.

Central payments represent some 95 per cent. of the departmental total and exclude only those payments made (a) on behalf of other Government Departments or by other Government Departments on the MOD's behalf, (b) by the MOD's trading funds (which lie outside the MOD's accounting boundary), (c) locally by the Department, or (d) in relation to collaborative projects where the payments are made through international procurement agencies or overseas Governments.