Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the annual cost to his Department of (a) stationery and (b) postage incurred when sending a ministerial reply to hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

The Department estimates that in 2013 it spent approximately £3,900 on stationery for ministerial replies to hon. Member correspondence.

All parliamentary post is delivered by a Departmental messenger, whose duties include, but are not limited to, delivering hon. Member correspondence. Any correspondence for constituency offices would be sent by post, when requested, but the Department does not record how many replies to hon. Members were sent to constituency offices.