§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was spent by(a) her Department and (b) bodies for which it is responsible on external public relations consultants in each of the last four years. [27390]
§ Hilary BennDFID provided £120,000 in 1998 for work by a public relations consultancy to raise awareness of malaria as part of the Roll Back Malaria initiative led by the World Health Organisation. The Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) spent £80,000 on external communications consultancy in 1998 and 1999, preparing for its transformation to a public limited company. Both DFID and CDC have separately used communications consultants for specific development694W activities in particular countries but the figures are not held centrally and it would require disproportionate cost to obtain them.