To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland 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.

In the last 12 months, the Scotland Office has undertaken one public consultation, "Sorting the Ballot". This public consultation began on 13 December 2007 and ended on 7 March 2008; an analysis of the 39 responses was published on 24 June 2008. The consultation paper was printed by the Stationery Office at a cost of £1,727 and vetted by the Plain English Campaign at a cost of £311, making a total of £2,038.