NEWS28 November 2011
UK— The UK government spent over £4.2m on market research services in September, according to latest monthly departmental disclosures of all spending over £25,000.
More than half the money – £2.5m – was spent by the Department for Health, with £1.6m going to Ipsos Mori and the rest to Ecorys, formerly Ecotec Research.
The Department for Work and Pensions spent £1.2m, with over £200,000 split between GfK NOP, TNS BMRB, Ecorys, RS Consulting and ORC International and the remaining £956,000 going to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
Other departments reporting research spend were Business, Innovation and Skills (£99 ), Education (£426,937 ), Energy and Climate Change (£6,772 ) and Revenue and Customs (£62,400 ).The Attorney General’s Office, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Foreign Office and Home Office, reported no research spend.
The Cabinet Office, the Department for Culture Media and Sport, the Government Equalities Office, the Justice Department and the Department for Transport had yet to report figures for September.
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4 Comments
Rog
14 years ago
A quarter of the 4.2m identified here goes to a company who does no market research at all (the clue's in the name). It may be interesting to know how much is spent by gvt on market research, but this doesn't get close.
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Brian Tarran
14 years ago
Hi Rog, We use market research as a catch-all term for market, social and opinion research - but I should have been clearer on that, so thanks for bringing attention to it. I've also not counted money spent on ONS work, because it's not clear from government accounts how much of this money actually finds its way to private sector agencies, but this is something I could add in in future if readers think it would provide a better picture of market, social and opinion research spend. Open to suggestions on how to improve these figures as ongoing thing. Thanks, Brian
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Nick Moon
14 years ago
I assume the BIS spend is £99,000, unless they're doing really cheap research. More seriously, it's not clear whether that is expenditure paid in the month, or the value of work done in tne month. Given the length of most government research projects, a moving annual total would be more informative
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Brian Tarran
14 years ago
Hi Nick, I've double checked and it is £99 - for "Communications & Marketing Training", paid to Ipsos Mori. The plan is to collate research spend every month to eventually produce an annual figure. Thanks, Brian
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