§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much her Department and its executive agencies have spent drafting, publishing and circulating each of their customer charters and customer standard documents; and how many copies of each document have been issued. [19393]
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe Department and its executive agencies publish four charters and one customer standard document. The costs of publishing these documents and the number of copies issued are as follows:
Publishing and circulating (£ millions) Number of copies issued (millions) The parent's charter 3.073 20 The jobseeker's charter 0.02 0.055 The higher education and further education charters 0.77 2.87 2.42 The overseas labour service statement of service standard 0.002 0.02 The involvement of civil servants in drafting and preparing text is part of their normal responsibilities and cannot be quantified separately.
It would compromise the Department's confidential tendering procedures to disclose separately the payments made for the circulation of charters.
294WThe figures shown cover the costs of publishing and circulating the latest version of the jobseeker's charter. The information on costs for previous versions could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The higher education and further education charters were produced jointly. It is not possible to disaggregate costs. Although the main publishing and circulation costs are shown, there is some additional on-going expenditure which is not possible to itemise separately.