§ Ms. RichardsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he will state for each of the past five years, the cost to his Department of replying to parliamentary questions about or related to abortion.
§ Mr. FreemanThe Department does not maintain a record of expenditure on replies to parliamentary questions and any attempt at retrospective estimation would be disproportionately expensive. The cost varies widely according to the nature of the question, the availability of the information requested and, where statistics are involved, the amount of computer time required.