§ Mr. McCuskerasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was the amount spent on advertising in the Belfast Telegraph, Belfast Newsletter and Irish News on recruitment to the Prison Service in Northern Ireland in each year since 1970; and what was the response each year to each newspaper campaign in terms of replies and conversions.
§ Mr. ConcannonPrior to 1st January 1974, the annual cost of advertising was as follows:
1974 1975 1976 1977 (to 31st October 1977) £ £ £ £ Belfast Telegraph … … 28,796 19,367 18,618 33,541 News Letter … … … 11,622 6,688 7,017 10,974 Irish News … … … 8,219 5,140 3,945 8,411 The number of coupons returned were:
1974 1975 1976 1977 (to 31st October 1977) Belfast Telegraph … … 1,164 1,445 1,015 1,302 News Letter … … … 561 649 402 412 Irish News … … … 91 101 46 45 It is impossible to correlate exactly the decision of individuals to apply with
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1st April 1970–31st March 1971 £759 1st April 1971–31st March 1972 £7,560 1st April 1972–31st March 1973 £8,277 1st April 1973–31st December 1973 £5,545 These composite figures, which are the only ones available for this period, include newspaper and television advertising, although the latter prior to January 1974 was very infrequent. No reply coupons were then provided as part of the newspaper advertising, and it is therefore impossible to give details of response to any one campaign.
Fuller statistics for newspaper advertising have been kept since January 1974 and are as follows:
particular areas of the advertisement campaign.
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§ Mr. McCuskerasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was the amount spent on advertising in the Belfast Telegraph, Belfast Newsletter and Irish News on recruitment of civil research personnel in each year since the creation of these search units; and what was the response each year to each newspaper campaign in terms of replies and conversions.
§ Mr. DunnI am informed that the amount spent on advertising for civilian search personnel was as follows:
Belfast telegraph Irish News News Letter £ £ £ 1973 140.00 63.50 98.50 1974 1,062.80 432.00 633.00 1975 613.40 234.00 351.00 1976 102.40 38.40 59.50 1977 (to 1st December 1977) 102.70 39.00 54.00 Records prior to 1973 are not available.
Applications received and appointments made were as follows:
RUC AND RUC RESERVE Belfast Telegraph Belfast News Letter Irish News £ £ £ 1972 … … … … … 4,195 2,301 1,452 1973 … … … … … 9,578 4,398 3,330 1974 … … … … … 17,661 14,117 8,374 1975 … … … … … 22,295 11,074 7,988 1976 … … … … … 59,792 17,598 14,798 1977 (to 30th September) … … 69,456 29,722 29,610 Records of the response to newspaper advertising have been maintained since 1973 in the case of the RUC and since 1974 in the case of the RUC Reserve.
Belfast Telegraph RUC Belfast News Letter Irish News RUC Reserve Three Newspapers 1973 … … … … … 316 311 7 — 1974 … … … … … 164 157 2 762 1975 … … … … … 452 168 6 795 1976 … … … … … 865 71 10 857 1977 (to 30th September) … … 890 211 37 849 It is not possible to correlate exactly the decision of candidates to apply with particular areas of the advertisement campaign.