Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department spent on (a) focus groups and (b) surveys in (i) 2013 and (ii) 2014 to date.

In answer to the first part of your question, the department is unable to provide spend on focus groups. The data is not held centrally, and to attempt to collect the information would engage the disproportionate costs threshold.

As to the second part of your question, I can confirm that the total spend on surveys by the department in 2013, and up to 31 October 2014 is as follows:

This compares to £25,203.50 in 2008/09.