Why is Hoon only giving half answers?

Think tanks often get cash from Governments, the Smith Institute and IPPR have certainly received funding from this Government. However finding out how much can often be tough as with all political questions and answer the detail is often mislaid within what seems at first glance a response.

Take for example a question asked by Oliver Heald MP to the Foreign Office about what funding the FCO had given to IPPR and it's limited trading company since 1997. Geoff Hoon's answer was most interesting, he simply said,

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made 10 payments to the Institute for Public Policy and Research (IPPR), and no payments to IPPR Trading Ltd since May 1997. The payments range in value from £9.49 to £40,000. It is not possible to establish the precise details relating to earlier payments without incurring disproportionate cost, but from the information available all payments were for goods or services received from the IPPR, rather than funding to this organisation.

Worst case scenario? They've paid IPPR £360,009.49 since 1997, best case they've paid them £40,084.41. Something tells me it's closer to the worst case than the best else why avoid detailing it?

Don't misunderstand me here, I'm not saying paying money for research is wrong per se. What bothered me is the rather blatant obfuscation.