To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Government Office in each region has spent on media monitoring services in each of the last five years; and what companies were used by each office. (319217)

In the past, a number of Government Offices have taken media monitoring contracts to inform their role, including provision of regional intelligence to Whitehall Departments.

The means of doing this has varied between in house and use of contracted services. As of this year (2009-10) following a review of GO communications activity, there has been one media monitoring contract with TNS Media Monitoring Services which covers the whole GO Network. That contract operates from 2 June 2009 to 31 March 2010 with a total cost of £ 110,000 paid for by the Network centrally.