To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 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.

My Department, excluding agencies and non-departmental public bodies, conducted 13 public consultations in the last 12 months. Of the 13 consultations, all were 12 weeks long with the exception of number seven and nine which were 19 and 16 weeks respectively. The following table shows how many responses were received in each case and what the cost of conducting each consultation was.