Abt Associates was the biggest recipient of government cash, banking more than £5.2m between May and September for its work in west and southern Africa for the Department of International Development.

TNS-BMRB followed, receiving almost £4m for research on a host of COI communications campaigns as well as on projects for education, transport and other government departments, including the Home Office.

Below is the full list of agencies we’ve uncovered so far and what they earned. Readers should note this is by no means an exhaustive analysis of the 196,000 lines of expenditure, so it is not a full picture of how much the government actually spends on market research and related activities.

Also, each department categorises their spend on research in different ways. Those that use the term ‘research’ tend to use it to cover all manner of things (including money spent on recruitment consultants and travel agents). So there’s an element of guesswork involved but we’ve tried to stick to those companies that we know definitely offer market research services.

£1m-plus

1. Abt Associates – £5.26m
2. TNS-BMRB – £3.99m
3. Ecotec – £3.3m
4. Ipsos Mori – £3.18m
5. TNS UK – £2.44m
6. ORC International – £1.46m
7. Gartner – £1.13m

£100,000–£1m

1. Greenstreet Berman – £562,496
2. GfK NOP – £529,999
3. The Futures Company – £295,271
4. Jigsaw Research – £283,398
5. IFF Research – £208,569
6. FDS International – £192,180
7. Synovate – £172,760
8. Cragg Ross Dawson – £144,787
9. BDRC Continental – £128,622
10. OMB Research – £116,077
11. BrandScience – £113,000

Under £100,000

1. Research Works – £79,200
2. Opinion Leader Research – £77,918
3. Corr Willbourn – £75,055
4. Sherbert Research – £72,760
5. RSM – £68,340
6. RS Consulting – £65,500
7. Experian – £65,184
8. Enerdata – £65,155
9. Ethnos Research & Consultancy – £62,084
10. Alphaplus Consultancy – £60,000
11. I-Graduate – £55,804
12. Define Research & Insight – £52,800
13. Optimisa Research – £52,250
14. CFE – £46,997
15. CRAC – £37,025
16. AD Research & Analysis – £36,772
17. Oxford Intelligence – £36,000
18. Hall & Partners – £34,100
19. ESRO – £32,310
20. Outsights – £30,555
21. Virtual Surveys – £29,400
22. Consulus – £28,573
23. Illuminas – £25,600
24. Employment Research & Consulting £25,344
25. Evans Major Associates – £24,563
26. The Nursery Research & Planning – £24,000
27. Brand Democracy – £21,844
28. Dialogue By Design – £17,707
29. YouGov – £10,886
30. Cassiopeia Consultancy – £6,241
31. Broadcast Audience Research Board – £4,198