§ Dr. M. S. Millerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will set out in the Official Report the total expenditure on publicity for the anti-litter campaign undertaken by his Department for each of the following financial years: 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82 and 1982–83; how much has been spent to date in the financial year 1983–84 and how much is budgeted for the current year; what was the total expenditure of his Department for each of the years concerned; and what percentage the publicity expenditure on the anti-litter campaign represented of that total expenditure.
§ Mr. Giles ShawThe Department makes an annual grant to the Keep Britain Tidy Group to support the454W national litter abatement campaign. The group determines the level of its expenditure on publicity and promotions, having regard to the extent to which contributions from other sources are earmarked for particular types of work. National promotions are normally arranged jointly by the group in association with major companies and voluntary organisations which share the costs involved. The grants made in the financial years referred to were as follows —except as indicated, no specific sums were earmarked for publicity purposes:
£000 1979–80 275 1980–81 *250 1981–82 275 1982–83 †292 * Plus an additional £30,000 for a poster campaign in the London area. † Plus a contribution of £50,000 to the "Beautiful Britain 1983" Campaign. I announced the amount of the grant proposed for 1983–84 in an answer today to my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton (Mr. Forman).
§ Mr. Formanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is now in a position to increase his Department's grant to the Keep Britain Tidy group for 1983–84.
§ Mr. Giles ShawI have now completed my review of the level of the Department's grant to the Keep Britain Tidy Group for 1983–84.
I am concerned that the group should be able to increase its litter abatement work and I accept the desirability of the group increasing its promotional activities through an expansion of its regional organisation. The group estimates that its proposals to achieve such an expansion would require an increase in the grant for 1983–84 of £125,000 to a total of £525,000. As forecast in the answer to the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Mr. Ogden) on 27 April—[Vol. 41, c. 855–56]—I have been considering increasing the grant and I am now prepared to make available the additional £125,000, subject to the normal scrutiny of the expenditure involved. Such an increase would be offset by savings elsewhere in Class VII 2 and does not involve any increase in the planned total of public expenditure.
I have asked the group to renew its efforts to obtain increased financial sponsorship from the private sector.