§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the employment of polling or public survey organisations by his Department during the current and previous financial years, on the organisations employed by his Department, on the values of individual contracts for these services, on the total amounts of money spent and on the purposes of the research undertaken by these organisations. [14501]
§ Mr. Ian Taylor[holding answer 20 March 1995]: The tables list only those surveys commissioned by my Department from polling or public survey organisations in 1993–94 and 1994–95. Information on the individual fees paid cannot be disclosed due to commercial confidentiality considerations, but the total value of those listed was £270,000 in 1993–94 and £329,000 in 1994–95. Most surveys commissioned by my Department are of businesses and are conducted by business consultants or by the Department itself. Polling organisations compete for these contracts in accordance with competitive tendering rules, and sometimes gain contracts for other than polling work.
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DTI Surveys commissioned from polling or public survey companies 1994–95 Survey Objective Contractor Business Links Baseline Tracking Study Tracking research for the Business Link initiative MORI Firework Safety Study Guage public awareness of/reaction to firework safety publicity to assess 1995 advertising strategy RSGB TEC Evaluation Evaluate TECs' performance PA Consulting