HC Deb 09 April 2003 vol 403 cc267-8W
Mr. Maude

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list(a) the title and subject, (b) the total cost to her Department and (c) the commissioned author or organisation of each external report commissioned by her Department in each year since 1997. [103724]

Ms Hewitt

I have understood an external report to be a report produced at the request of government by a person, group or organisation external to the department and which is publicly available. To distinguish the external reports produced by my Department, and provide their commissioned authors or organisations, could only be done at disproportionate cost, as this information is not held centrally.

However a list of all DTI publications produced since 12 February 2002, which have been notified to my Department's Publications Unit, has been placed in the Libraries of the House. For publications produced prior to this date I refer the hon Member to the answer given to the hon Member for Buckingham on 25 February 2002, Official Report, column 849W.

The listing includes the total production cost to the Department of each publication (where notified centrally), and excludes publications for internal use. The subject of each publication could not be included in the list without disproportionate cost, but the subject of most publications is clear form the title.