To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what (a) summits, (b) conferences and (c) seminars his Department has hosted since January 2008 at which a primary subject of discussion was the effect of the economic situation on matters within his Department's responsibility. (258860)

This Department’s core focus is on business and economic issues. Face to face stakeholder engagement plays a key part in helping us to understand and tackle the issues facing different organisations as a result of the current downturn. It is not possible to provide a complete centralised list of all our work on the economic situation, as this is a broad subject area and could potentially cover a wide range of different areas of the Department.

However, in terms of events hosted in our Conference Centre at 1 Victoria Street since January 2008, this Department has hosted three summits, 16 conferences and eight seminars at which the primary focus was the effects of the economic situation on matters within its responsibility.

These pertained to a broad range of different issues within Ministers’ briefs—from small business to consumer protection and the automotive industry. It also includes inter-departmental meetings between Whitehall economic experts.