To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 20 January 2010, Official Report, column 377W, on the Audit Commission: public opinion, what the purpose was of the public affairs consultancy work undertaken by Consolidated Communications for his Department; and what (a) documents and (b) other deliverables the Audit Commission received from Consolidated Communications under that contract. (317524)

This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission and I have asked the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.

Letter from Steve Bundred, dated 23 February 2010:

Your Parliamentary Question has been passed to me to reply.

The Audit Commission contracted Consolidated Communications, a communications company, during a period of substantial reorganisation of its communications directorate. Consolidated offered advice and support, replacing functions in the external communications team that, temporarily, were not available in house.

The work and deliverables carried out under the contract were:

the monitoring of Parliament;

the monitoring of policy announcements; and

briefings on legislative issues.

A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard.