§ MR. PIRIEI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can obtain from the heads of the chief Government Departments, and state, for the information of the House, the numbers of newspapers in England, Scotland, and Ireland, respectively, in which advertisements are inserted for tenders for Government contracts; and whether invitations for tenders forwarded by Her Majesty's Consuls from foreign Governments to our Foreign Office are advertised in any Scottish newspaper; if so, how many and what has been the expenditure for advertisements of those descriptions in Scotland during the last year, and under what Vote will it be found?
§ MR. HANBURYThe information asked for in the first paragraph could only be given in the form of a Return. I doubt whether it would be possible to give any definite statistics, as the Departments presumably vary their lists of newspapers according to the subject-matter of the particular advertisement. But if the honourable Member will give notice to move for a Return, I will see what can be done. The answer to the second paragraph is that no paid advertisements of the invitations communicated from abroad are inserted in any newspaper, and so no expenditure for the 486 purpose is incurred. A note of each communication of the kind is sent for gratuitous insertion to 39 newspapers, of which five are Scottish. Copies of the note are also supplied to two telegraph agencies and to two commercial associations.