Press and Public Relations

HC Deb 02 June 1992 vol 208 cc481-2W

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give the total expenditure by his Department on press and public relations in 1979–80 and in each following year up to and including 1991–92; and if he will give an estimate for 1992–93.

Miss Widdecombe

Functions commonly associated with public relations are carried out by information officers as part of their duties in the Department's information division.

For information for 1979–80 to 1989–90, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to him on 22 May 1991 at col. 535.

Estimated total expenditure in 1991–92 is as follows: Publicity, which includes television advertising and leaflets: £11.407 million. Staff and running costs: total expenditure figures are not yet available.

1992–93 budgets for the headquarters information division and the Benefits Agency information service branch in the Department of Social Security are as follows:

	DSS HQ £ million	BA £ million
Publicity	10.088	8.261
Staff running costs	.813	1.25
	.345

and subsequent years would ignore the additional expenditure made possible by the recycling of money received from loan repayments.