HC Deb 31 January 2003 vol 398 c1083W
Mr. Laws

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much(a) his Department and (b) each agency and non-departmental public body sponsored by his Department spent on (i) publicity and (ii) advertising in each year from 1995–96 to 2002–03 (estimated); and if he will make a statement. [92229]

Mr. Rammell

The separately identifiable expenditure by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the categories listed by the hon. Member are:

Expenditure by category
£
Publicity Advertising
1995–96 16,768,873 0
1996–97 14,104,569 0
1997–98 14,627,831 54,038
1998–99 11,919,392 1,029,850
1999–2000 13,545,306 54,498
2000–01 13,233,690 51,950
2001–02 10,682,233 49,581
2002–031 10,061,313 14,926
1 Estimated outturn.

The figures provided represent the expenditure of the FCO and not of Wilton Park, our only agency, or our 10 NDPBs; these details are not held centrally and cannot therefore be compiled without incurring disproportionate cost.

The figures in the table include expenditure on consular publicity but exclude expenditure on advertising for recruitment. The advertising figure for 1998–99 includes £1 million spent on a consular advertising campaign in the run-up to the 1998 World Cup held in France. In addition to the expenditure identified, there was minor additional expenditure in the United Kingdom and overseas during the years specified. This cannot be ascertained without incurring disproportionate cost. The Government are committed to using only cost effective channels to deliver the publicity necessary to support policy implementation. Paid advertising is only resorted to after careful consideration of the cost-benefits.