§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what have been the costs of the Scott inquiry in respect of(a) press and communications, (b) legal aid bills, (c) printing and publications, (d) administration and (e) telephone bills. [17048]
§ Mr. LangThe information is as follows:
- (a) The cost of press and communications in respect of the Scott inquiry is not readily quantifiable. Sir Richard Scott has had a full time press officer allocated to his team, and various officers of departmental press offices have been involved as the normal course of their duties required. The cost of purchasing copies of Sir Richard Scott's report for the media was £18,000.
- (b) As far as I am aware, no individual received legal aid in connection with their appearance as a witness to the Scott inquiry. The total amount paid by Government in legal advice for witnesses to the inquiry to date is £1,210,000.
- (c) HMSO normally bears the costs of printing, publishing and distributing all parliamentary publications, with the overall aim of recovering these from sales revenue. However, in this case, and at the request of Sir Richard Scott, my Department has agreed to pay a subsidy in the region of £85,000 so that the cover price can be contained at a level which ensures that the report is as accessible as possible to the general public.
- (d) The administration costs of Sir Richard Scott's inquiry team to date amount to £153,000. This includes the cost of office machinery and computers as well as stationery, typing etc. but does not include salary costs of the staff in the inquiry team.
- (e) Records are not kept in such a way as to quantify the size of the telephone bills relating to the Scott inquiry.