§ Mrs. RocheTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what has been the cost to public funds of the consultation that he has undertaken on whether large companies should state their payment practice in their accounts. [35640]
§ Mr. PageAs the consultation was launched only on 27 June, it is impossible to judge at this stage what the total cost to public funds will be. However, the consultative document itself was produced in-house to keep production costs down. We estimate the printing and reprographic costs for the nearly 2,000 copies issued so far to be approximately £1,800. The only other significant item of expenditure to date has been the cost of mailing the document to consultees.