§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will list the publications issued by her Department in each of the last four years; and what the(a) circulation, (b) cost and (c) purpose of each was. [34202]
§ Hilary BennThe main DFID publications for each year are listed in our departmental reports to Parliament for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001, which can be found in the House of Commons Library.
All DFID publications are free of charge unless otherwise indicated. This is in line with DFID's commitment to openness, as well as to raising awareness and understanding of development issues.
Due to the disproportionate cost involved we are not able to provide the full level of details requested. We have an actively managed database of over 11,000 347W organisations and individuals who have asked to be informed about new publications, and also use supplementary distribution channels for material which is likely to be of interest to specific audiences. DFID's overall expenditure on publications in each of the last four years was as follows:
£000 1997–98 166 1998–99 347 1999–2000 570 2000–01 639 The increase in expenditure in each of the last three years reflects both the expansion in the range of material which we now make publicly available, and also the increased demand for this material.