Steve Beasant

The Ministry of Justice has spent more than £1.2m on focus groups and opinion polls since May 2007, the Liberal Democrats have revealed. Almost £500,000 has been spent on focus groups and over £750,000 on opinion polls, figures revealed in a Parliamentary answer show.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Jeremy Browne said: “With Government debt soaring and budgets being squeezed, it is astonishing that the department should be spending so much money on focus groups.

“Ministers should spend less time worrying about spinning their policies and more time making sure that they work.”