Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 19 April 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 30 April 2004. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Friday, 30 April 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his Answer of 7th April, refs 163515 to 163518 on public bodies, what he estimates the staff and administration costs have been to his Department of those bodies referred to which are still in existence.

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 7 April 2004, refs 163515 to 163518 on public bodies, what he estimates the staff and administration costs have been to his Department of those bodies referred to which are still in existence. [167547] Ms Rosie Winterton: As the previous reply explained, information on the Department's task forces, ad hoc advisory groups and reviews is given in the annual publication, "Public Bodies". This publication explains that such groups have a short-term focus and when their work comes to an end they are disbanded. These groups are usually created to give expert advice to the Government on a specific issue and are usually expected to remain in operation for less than two years. They are not separate statutory bodies. As such, they have no capacity to employ staff or hold assets in their own right and rely on secretariat and other support from the Department and, sometimes, other interested bodies. They will not normally have any formal separate budget allocated to them, and accountability for expenditure will remain with the body to whom any funding is allocated.

Secondary information