Written question asked by Oliver Heald (Conservative) on Friday, 27 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 1 July 2008. It was answered by Lord Wills (Labour) on Monday, 7 July 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Information Commissioner: Public Relations

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many press, marketing and communications staff are employed by the Information Commissioner's office.

Answer: The Information Commissioner's Office is an independent body created by statute. Its responsibilities include handling complaints made under the Data Protection Act 1998, Freedom of Information Act 2000, Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004.The ICO has a Communication Team of 11 people who deal with online media, internal communications, market research, marketing, media strategy, publications and public affairs.The ICO also uses a public relations agency to provide a press office. A recent re-tendering exercise found that the estimated costs for setting up an in-house press office were higher than employing a public relations agency to do this work.

Secondary information