To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether any (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had (i) meetings with, (ii) communications from and (iii) other contacts with News International in the last five years; and what the subject matter of any contact was in each case. (295015)

In the course of accounting for the Department’s work through the media, Ministers and officials deal with News International representatives on a regular basis. No central record of this routine business is held.