§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department has spent on advertising in national and local newspapers, on television and in other printed journals in each of the past five years; and what is budgeted in the current financial year for such advertising.
§ Mr. RidleyThe expenditure undertaken on behalf of my Department by the Central Office of Information over the past five years was as follows:
Press Television Total £ £ £ 1979–80 105,000 4,141,000 4,246,000 1980–81 129,000 3,502,000 3,631,000 1981–82 410,000 3,615,000 4,025,000 1982–83 816,000 2,319,000 3,135,000 1983–84 334,000 4,655,000 4,999,000 Over the five years about 97 per cent. of this expenditure was on road safety advertising. The remainder was on vehicle licensing, car sharing, exhibitions of new road schemes and London car parking arrangements.
The estimated budget for 1984–85, again mostly for road safety, is estimated at £3,659,000.
In addition direct expenditure by my Department and the Department of the Environment for the past five years in statutory and classified press advertising was as follows:
£ 1979–80 500,262 1980–81 419,318 1981–82 605,299 1982–83 607,635 1983–84 873,207 These expenditures include spending by the Department of the Environment since during the period in question the Departments had a common information directorate. They do not include the cost of a limited amount of statutory advertising in the London Gazette.
At this stage it is not possible to provide the exact expenditure for statutory and classified advertising for 1984–85, but it is likely to be in the order of .700,000.