§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answers of 16 December:2002,Official Report, column 576W and the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Lidington) on 18 December 2002, Official Report, column 801W, if she will make a statement on the reason underlying the number of copies of the document (a) printed and (b) distributed; and what the cost of its production and distribution was. [89765]
§ Mr. MeacherWe arranged for 5,000 copies of the consultation document to be printed because we believed this would be a sufficient number to allow distribution to all stakeholders with an interest in the issues set out in the document. The 5,000 figure also allowed for the Department to retain sufficient copies which could be distributed to members of the public who made direct requests for copies.
1,400 copies were handed out at the Urban Summit, where the consultation was launched. Over 2,000 copies were initially sent out to local authorities, police, businesses, trade associations, Government Departments 100W and a variety of other agencies and bodies. We sent a copy to all bodies known to have a direct interest in the outcome of the proposals set out in the consultation. The majority of the remaining copies have since been sent out to people who made direct approaches to the Policy Team in the Department and the Department's publications section.
The total cost of production of the Defra consultation document was £12,000. Initial distribution was handled by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister when it published its own document, "Living Places—Cleaner, Safer, Greener". The initial distribution cost for the two documents was £5,241.50.