§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the facility trips provided to journalists by his Department during 1980, the destination and purpose of such trips, the papers, radio channels, magazines or television channels benefiting, and the cost of such facilities.
§ Mr. Pattie624 facility visits were arranged by MOD PR staffs during the calendar year 1980. This figure does not include visits arranged by establishments and local commands, for which information is not available centrally. All the major national press, radio and TV companies took part in the visits, together with a wide range of local media representatives.
The general purpose of such facility visits is to inform the media and through them to contribute to a deeper understanding of defence issues among the general public.
Facility visits are arranged to a great many defence establishments in the United Kingdom and abroad; it is not possible to itemise them without disproportionate effort. Similarly, detailed information on all costs relating to these visits is not readily available. Every effort, however, is made to keep such costs to a minimum. In particular, for facility visits in the United Kingdom journalists are normally expected to pay their own travel costs; and for visits abroad Service transport is used whenever possible.