Departmental Public Consultation

Mr. Vara
To ask the Leader of the House how many public consultations her Office has conducted in the last 12 months; how long each consultation was open for; how many responses were received in each case; and what the cost of conducting each consultation was.

Chris Bryant
The Office of the Leader of the House of Commons conducted one public consultation in the last 12 months, on the Draft Legislative programme. The consultation began on 14 May 2008 and concluded on 6 August 2008.

With regard to the responses and cost of the consultation, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given on 14 October 2008, Official Report, column 1016W. £32,035 was spent on publishing the Government's Draft Legislative programme for 2008-09. The cost of the consultation exercise on the Government's Draft Legislative programme for 2008-09 was £30,922.38.

The Government's Draft Legislative programme for 2008-09 received the views of around 1,900 people and organisations. These comprised 566 responses to the Leader of the House of Commons' website, at least 1,200 people and organisations who participated in the 62 regional events and 115 individuals and organisations who responded by post.