§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the public information telephone inquiry lines operated by his Department, in each case indicating the costs of establishing, operating and publicising these lines and the number of calls made to them up until this point; when they were established; and what assessment his Department has made of their effectiveness. [17460]
§ Mr. Lang[holding answer 3 April 1995]: The Scottish Office inquiry line and the free telephone lines from Scottish Office information points were established in October 1993. The cost of establishing these lines was £8,864 and telephone operating costs are approximately £5,000 per annum. All calls to these lines are dealt with by the Scottish Office central inquiry unit. The handling cost per call is less than £1. Initial publicity for the information points and lines cost £150,000. No further, publicity costs have been incurred.
There have been some 6,600 calls to the inquiry line from all sources since its inception to 24 March 1995.
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Advertising expenditure by agencies within the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Scotland £ thousand Date of agency launch 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 estimate outturn 1995–96 plans Historic Scotland April 1991 a. television n/a 42 Nil Nil 129 129 b. radio n/a Nil Nil Nil 5 5 c. newspaper n/a 380 253 260 93 93 d. other promotion n/a Nil 65 65 70 70 e. total n/a 422 318 325 297 297 f. proportion of total spent on recruitment n/a 3.6 per cent. 3.5 per cent. 3.4 per cent. 7.1 per cent. 5.4 per cent. Registers of Scotland April 1991 a. television Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil b. radio Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil c. newspaper Nil Nil 11 7 1 5 d. other promotion Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil e. total Nil Nil 1 7 1 5 f. proportion of total spent of recruitment Nil Nil 3.0 per cent. 29.9 per cent. 29.9 per cent. 9.0 per cent. Scottish Agricultural Science Agency April 1992 a. television n/a n/a Nil Nil Nil Nil b. radio n/a n/a Nil Nil Nil Nil c. newspaper n/a n/a 6 6 11 10 d. other promotion n/a n/a Nil 1 1 1 e. total n/a n/a 6 7 12 11 f. proportion of total spent on recruitment n/a n/a 100per cent. 85.7 per cent. 91.7 per cent. 90.9 per cent. A telephone call back survey to assess customer satisfaction levels with the service on these lines has just been completed.