Public Consultation Mr. Grieve To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many public consultations his Department and its predecessor conducted in each of the last five years. Mr. Straw The departmental annual reports published by the Ministry of Justice and by its predecessor the Department for Constitutional Affairs provide the following information on public consultations conducted in the last five years: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |Public consultations conducted| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2004-05 |132 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2005-06 |229 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2006-07 |326 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2007-08 |430 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1 Department for Constitutional Affairs Annual Report 2004-05. 2 Department for Constitutional Affairs Annual Report 2005-06. 3 Department for Constitutional Affairs Annual Report 2006-07. 4 Ministry of Justice Annual Report 2007-08.| | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Between 1 April 2008 and 12 March 2009, a total of 31 public consultations were conducted by my Department.