To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many press releases the News Distribution Service has issued in each year since 1997. (258821)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Central Office of Information. I have asked the chief executive to reply.

Letter from Peter Buchanan, dated 16 March 2009:

As Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information (COI), I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question [258821] on numbers of News Distribution (NDS) press releases.

The Central Office of Information's News Distribution Service distributes press releases on behalf of the Departments and maintains a record of press releases since 1997 at:

http://nds.coi.gov.uk/search/default.asp.