Departmental Public Consultations

Mr. Vara
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many public consultations his Department 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.

Mr. Michael Foster
The Department for International Development (DFID) has run 22 public consultations on its website during the last 12 months. The consultations were open for at least 12 weeks, as set out in the government guidance on public consultations. Information on responses and expenditure on public consultations is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.