§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Defence what representations his Department has received about the economies that could be derived from instituting combined advertising campaigns and recruitment centres for the armed services.
§ Mr. StanleyIn the past 12 months, three letters have been received from an advertising agency about tri-service advertising. During the same period there have been no representations about tri-service career information offices.
§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Defence what were the individual advertising budgets of the armed forces including the full costs of recruiting centres for each of the past five years.
§ Mr. StanleyExpenditure on recruiting advertising for each of the Armed Services during the last five financial years is given as follows with the total cost of recruiting for each Service. Costs, in pounds million, are at outturn prices. The total costs of service recruiting given include figures for the rental and staff costs of recruiting centres (career information offices) but they do not include an element for running costs which could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
1978/–79 1979/–80 1980/–81 1981/–82 1982/–83 Royal Navy Advertising 1.322 2.507 2.072 0.978 0.715 Total cost of naval recruiting 6.350 9.326 9.994 9.453 8.354 Army Advertising 2.022 3.150 2.115 1.816 1.736 Total cost of army recruiting 12.320 17.310 20.473 20.780 20.660 Royal Air Force Advertising 1.580 2.301 2.036 1.128 1.235 Total cost of RAF recruiting 6.830 9.647 10.786 10.794 10.866
§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Defence if his Department will undertake a feasibility study to examine the merits and economies of the individual services having combined advertisement programmes and recruiting centres.
§ Mr. StanleyThe merits of tri-service advertising have been considered on a number of occasions, including in the last Parliament, and it has been concluded that the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. A study has also been made into the network of career information offices. As a result we aim to reduce the overall number of CIOs by having more tri-service and bi-service offices wherever40W it is economic and practical to do so. Last year, a tri-service office was open in Peterborough and this year we plan to open tri-service offices at Coventry and Swansea. Feasibility studies in other towns are in hand.