§ Mr. PriskTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) how many copies of the "Action on Debt" booklet produced by the Social Exclusion Unit have been printed; [175629]
(2) what the total cost was of (a) publishing, (b) printing and (c) distributing the "Action on Debt" booklet produced by the Social Exclusion Unit; [175630]
(3) how many civil servants were employed in publishing the "Action on Debt" booklet produced by the Social Exclusion Unit. [175631]
§ Yvette CooperThe "Action on Debt" fact pack is available on the web and 12,000 hard copies were printed. The publication costs were £9,898; the printing costs were £3,805; and the initial distribution cost was £3,240 (all figures excluding VAT). The costs of further mailing in response to requests are not identified separately from other Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's publications.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister estimates that the production of the fact pack absorbed around 0.5 full-time equivalent civil servants over a period of three months, with a small amount of additional specialist support e.g. on design. The fact pack is part of the developing cross-Government strategy on over-indebtedness. It is a practical guide to what 252W organisations in a range of sectors can do to tackle debt problems and highlights in particular the cost-effectiveness of early intervention.