To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many public consultations his Department has conducted in the last 12 months; how long each consultation was open for; how many responses were received in each case; and what the cost of conducting each consultation was.

The number of public consultations conducted between February 2008 and January 2009 was 36. This includes those relating to the energy sector up to 3 October when the Department of Energy and Climate Change was formed and responsibility for energy issues was transferred to that Department. Consultations were open for at least 12 weeks, in line with the code of practice, except in a small number of cases where ministerial approval was gained for a shorter period. The number of responses received ranged from zero to several hundred. Providing the costs of conducting the consultations could be done only at disproportionate cost.