§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost incurred by each Government Department in answering parliamentary questions in the last parliamentary session. [7521]
§ Mrs. Angela KnightThe information is given in the table for the Session 1995–96:
£ Department of Health 424,942 Home Office 324,794 Department of Transport 307,020 Department of the Environment 296,592 Department of Trade and Industry 286,839 Ministry of Defence 271,580 Welsh Office 260,658 Department for Education and Employment 260,496 Scottish Office 253,189 Department of Social Security 248,711 Foreign and Commonwealth Office 244,544 Cabinet Office1 222,952 Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 195,972 Treasury 195,040 Northern Ireland Office 171,654 1 Includes questions answered by the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The estimated costs are based upon average costs calculated by the Treasury for April 1996 as £107 for answering a written parliamentary question and £249 for an oral parliamentary question. Information on the number of questions answered by each Government
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Family expenditure survey 1995–96 Expenditure by one man and one woman households with two children which have at least one car/van Lowest ten percent Second decile group Third decile group Fourth decile group Fifth decile group Sixth decile group Seventh decile group Eighth decile group Ninth decile group Highest ten percent All households Lower boundary of group £ (£) 235 330 378 416 473 540 615 707 899 Number of households 67 66 67 66 67 66 67 66 67 66 665 Department has been obtained from the parliamentary online information system database. Equivalent information for the House of Lords is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.