§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many copies of "Frances the Firefly" were produced for his Department by the Central Office of Information; what was the cost of (i) the production and (ii) the distribution of "Frances the Firefly"; who offered advice on the content of "Frances the Firefly"; and whether he intends to produce a sequel.
§ Mr. John PattenThe "Frances the Firefly" package consists of a story book and a five-minute video intended to warn small children of the dangers of playing with matches. To date 900,000 copies of the story book have been distributed, 97 per cent. of which were in response to requests. A total of 374 copies of the video have been sold and there have been 1,089 loans of the video through the central film library.
The production costs for the story book were £190,503 including the costs of development and reprints. The production costs of the video were £59,126 including £54,920 on development costs. The initial distribution costs of the video and story book were £14,728.
Advice on the content of the video and publication was provided internally by the Home Office fire and emergency planning department and the Home Office public relations branch, by the Central Office of Information and from a sample of primary school teachers in the Greater London area; and the style of presentation was also discussed with child psychologists.
It is intended to produce worksheets later this year to accompany the existing package. The character is capable of being used in future projects aimed at children, but no decision has yet been taken on a sequel.