Public consultation exercises run by the Home Office follow the Government’s Code of Practice on Consultation which sets out the basic principles for conducting effective formal written consultations. As reported in the Home Office Departmental Report 2008 during 2007-08 we published 17 public consultations. Out of these, 15 met the minimum 12-week consultation period and two lasted longer than 12 weeks. The departmental report for 2009 which will be published in the near future will set out the position for consultations published in 2008-09. The costs of running consultation exercises are met from within existing departmental resources. It would not be possible retrospectively to separate out the costs which could be attributed to a consultation from the normal day-to-day departmental business. All public consultation documents that have been initiated by the Home Office and related response documents, which normally include details of the number of responses received, can be found at the following websites listed:
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/haveyoursay/
http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/consultations/
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/ho-annual- report-08/