§ Mr. IngramTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the consultants currently engaged in examining the work of the Patent Office indicating the cost of each of the studies involved. [1202]
§ Mr. Ian Taylor[holding answer 21 November 1995]: Two firms of consultants are engaged by the Patent Office to help on possible contractorisation projects. They are Marketing Improvements Group plc and Coopers and Lybrand. The total cost of this work to date is £108,945 plus expenses. The three projects are the Office's information technology services, its marketing and awareness programmes, and the operations of its London front office. The overall annual costs of these are £5.888 million, £1.608 million and £1.125 million respectively.