§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost was of publishing his Department's annual report for each of the past five years. [70475]
§ Dr. MoonieThe Ministry of Defence meets the requirement to report past performance and future spending plans to Parliament by producing two separate documents—the Government's Expenditure Plans (published in the spring), and the Departmental Performance Report (published in the autumn).
The costs of printing and publishing these reports are largely borne by The Stationery Office, with whom the contract for producing Command Papers is held. The Stationery Office recoups these costs on a commercial basis through sales of the Reports, including those copies purchased by the MOD for its own use. The MOD also pays for any additional printing or publication costs not covered by the contract with The Stationery Office. Where these costs are readily identifiable they are shown in the following table. The remaining data are not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Year Government's Expenditure Plans (£) Departmental Performance Report (£) 1998 — 3,700 1999 — 7,100 2000 — 6,803 2001 4,768 12,610 2002 2,020 To be published in October MOD staff costs associated with producing these reports cannot be accurately assessed, and are not therefore included in the above figures.