To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on how many occasions in the last 12 months Ministers in his Department have used their discretion to rule that a parliamentary question for written answer should be answered because it would be in the public interest to do so, even though to do so would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold of £700.

Information relating to Ministers' consideration of parliamentary questions is not held in the format requested. As a general principle, the Department aims to provide as much information as possible when answering written questions and would consider providing an answer, even were it to exceed the disproportionate cost threshold, where Ministers consider it to be in the public interest.

In a ministerial written statement on 8 December 2008, Hansard, column 24WS, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury informed the House that the disproportionate cost threshold increased to £750 with effect from 3 December 2008.