HL Deb 25 April 1988 vol 496 cc9-10

2.58 p.m.

Lord Jay asked Her Majesty's Government:

How much the Department of Trade and Industry proposes to spend on advertising and publicity in 1988–89, and how much they spent in 1986–87 and in 1987–88.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Lord Young of Graffham)

My Lords, budget allocations for advertising and publicity during 1988–89 are still under discussion in my department. Expenditure in 1986–87 was £4.3 million, and in 1987–88 was £13.6 million.

Lord Jay

My Lords, is the Secretary of State not able to give us the figure he proposes for the present year? If the reports we read are correct, does this lavish spending on advertising and publicity by his department mean that he is now a convert to the view that the best way to solve problems is to throw public money at them?

Lord Young of Graffham

My Lords, the amount for advertising and publicity during 1988–89 is still being discussed by my department. If we go back 10 years to the last year of the old era and up-rate the amount the Government then spent on advertising by median inflation, the figure comes to £58 million. Excluding privatisations, the budget for last year was £54 million. That answers the noble Lord's question.

Lord Peston

My Lords, following my noble friend's second question, why does the noble Lord's department need to spend any money at all on advertising? To use his favourite phrase why can it not rely upon market forces?

Lord Young of Graffham

My Lords, the department is relying upon market forces. If the noble Lord cares to look at the White Paper which I brought to your Lordships' House last January he will see that I said that close communications between my department and business will be improved by greater emphasis on marketing DTI services and running clearly focused campaigns on issues relevant to business and to the DTI. I have today received details of a survey which shows that over 85 per cent. of businessmen think it right for my department to seek to spread best management practice in the ways that it is doing; 85 per cent. is an extraordinarily high sample, but I think that it is one with which we can rest content.

Lord Hatch of Lusby

My Lords, did I hear correctly the figures that the noble Lord gave; that he increased spending last year on publicity and advertising for his department by three times? If so, will he tell the House why he thinks it right to spend taxpayers' money on advertising for government party political purposes but not for local government?

Lord Young of Graffham

My Lords, yes, clearly. The noble Lord, who rarely misses anything I say, may have overlooked the fact that I was pointing out that, allowing for median inflation, the Government as a whole are spending less than was spent 10 years ago. I am happy to say that within my department, first, part of the spend is on the single market campaign. If the noble Lord thinks that that is political, I refer him to leaders in the Daily Mirror and the Guardian which both say that it is a non-political campaign and one to which the whole nation should respond. Secondly, the way in which my department is seeking to spread best business practice has received the approval of 85 per cent. of the business community. Again, I hardly think that that is political. In case the noble Lord should forget, we are possibly some four years from the next election.

Lord Jay

My Lords, whatever the Daily Mirror may say, will the Secretary of State also tell us which government department has been reproved by the Independent Broadcasting Authority for proposing to use public money for party political purposes?

Lord Young of Graf ham

My Lords, I know of no such department. All advertisements that appear on television must be approved by the IBA, as the Government found in the 1970s and early 1980s. I cannot find one thing in anything that my department advertises that is the remotest bit political, unless the noble Lord thinks that describing cases of success in Consett, the Lake District, Yorkshire, Portsmouth, Cornwall, Kent, Corby, Scunthorpe and even London is political. If so, he is in danger of aligning the Labour Party with failure.