§ Mr. St. AubynTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what(a) quantitative and (b) qualitative analytical work his Department has commissioned from GGC/NOP since 1 May 1997; and what was (i) the cost of the contract and (ii) the specific nature of the work commissioned. [155660]
Mr. Robert Ainsworth [holding answer 28 March 2001]The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Central) has commissioned the following research projects from NOP Market Research Group Ltd. and NOP Solutions since 1 May 1997:
separate out the costs of these two elements. However, £252,624 of the total was spent on mostly quantitative research and £30,350 on mostly qualitative.
739WDETR contracts like these are let through competitive tendering, in compliance with Treasury rules. In order to protect DETR's ability to purchase services at best value through the competitive tendering process we do not usually publish costs of individual contracts.