Publicity (Hansard, 19 April 1995)

§ Mr. Waldegrave

[holding answer 17 March 1995]: Expenditure on all forms of publicity, publications and pamphlets by the Department in the financial year 1984–85 and each subsequent year was as follows:

	£
1984–85	601,000
1985–86	685,000
1986–87	879,000
1987–88	705,000
1988–89	1,384,000
1989–90	2,489,000
1990–91	2,432,000
1991–92	4,094,000
1992–93	4,217,000
1993–94	4,312,000
1994–95¹	4,800,000
1995–96¹	4,400,000
¹ Forecast.

Expenditure prior to 1984–85 was not kept in this form and figures would be available only at disproportionate cost.

Publicity campaigns and publications from 1 April 1993 involving expenditure of more than £50,000 are as follows:
Title	Objective
'Foodsense' campaign	To provide information to the general public about food and food safety issues.
Keeping food cool and safe	To provide consumer advice on the safe storage of food.
At the Farmers Service	To provide information and advice about MAFF services to farmers and growers.
Joint Imports	To maintain public and industry awareness of the regulations on the import of meat and plant materials from abroad.
Plant Health	To promote public and industry awareness of the regulations on the importation and export, for domestic and commercial use, of plants and plant material.
Animal Health and Welfare	To promote and heighten public and industry awareness of animal health and welfare regulations and good practice.

158W

Publicity campaigns and publications from 1 April 1993 involving expenditure of more than £50,000 are as follows:
Title	Objective
Balance in the Countryside	To provide factual information and better understanding of environmental issues for which MAFF is responsible.
Environmentally Sensitive Areas	To publicise the availability of grants to farmers, and increase public understanding of the scheme.
Export and Trade Promotion	To support the UK agrifood industry at home and abroad.
National Exhibition Programme	To provide relevant Departmental information to the agricultural industry and the general public.
Agri-Environment	To make farmers and growers aware of the benefits and help available from the scheme.
Rabies Campaign	To maintain public awareness of quarantine regulations.

Publications and publicity by MAFF agencies are the responsibility of their chief executives. I have asked them to reply direct to the hon. Member.

Letter from Dr. P. I. Stanley to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 31 March 1995:

EXPENDITURE SINCE 1979 BY MAFF AND ITS AGENCIES ON PUBLICITY AND PUBLICATIONS The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) was first launched as an executive agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in April 1992. Expenditure details are not therefore available for the years 1979–1991, when CSL formed part of the Department. Further, CSL was re-launched as an enlarged agency in April 1994, following its merger with the Food Science Laboratories in Norwich and Aberdeen. The merger necessitated revision of several publications including the Agency's Framework Document, Statement of Standards and Quality of Service and promotional brochure and this is reflected in the outturn of expenditure in 1993/94. CSL's expenditure on all forms of publicity and all publications, including pamphlets, in £'000, expressed in 1994 prices follows. There has been no privatisation-related expenditure.

	Publicity	Publications
1992/93	3.18	20.60
1993/94	7.21	82.40
1994/95	15.00	50.00
1995/96¹	14.56	48.54
¹Budgeted figures.

The Agency does not run publicity campaigns as such but does participate in exhibitions, open days anda conferences. No single event or publication has cost in excess of £50,000.

Letter from Dr. T. W. A. Little to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 31 March 1995: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question about expenditure on publicity and publications by CVL over the last few years. CVL became an Executive Agency in 1990. Up to and including November 1992 our accounts were processed and produced by MAFF. The figures in 1994 prices for the financial years from 1992–93, including the budgetary figure for 1995–96, are as follows:

159W

	Including VAT £
1992–93¹	31,995
1993–94	33,698
1994–95	48,732
1995–96	41,272
¹ Based on CVL/MAFF records. A word or two of explanation about the figures may be of assistance. To facilitate the marketing of the Agency CVL uses a range of material to inform customers about it products and services. This covers publication of the Annual Report and Accounts through pamphlets about individual services to marketing brochures and customer newsletters. In this financial year we expect to produce nearly 22,000 individual items which will be distributed by various means to 4,000 customers and prospects.

Finally, you also asked for information about privatisation-related expenditure and further details of each publicity campaign or publication involving expenditure of more than £50,000. CVL has had no expenditure in the areas relating to privatisation and no single campaign involving more than £50,000.

Letter from Guy Stapleton to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 31 March 1995: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question about expenditure on all forms of publicity and all publications and pamphlets produced by the Agency since 1979 at 1994 prices. The Intervention Board has spent the following sums on publicity and publications since 1989–90 at 1994 prices. Papers for earlier years have been disposed of under the Agency's records management policy.

	Publicity £	Publications £
1989–90	64,019	31,258
1990–91	29,732	22,165
1991–92	22,320	27,690
1992–93	11,030	31,637
1993–94	8,780	36,482
1994–95	10,969	30,954

Publicity covers the cost of recruitment advertising and the Agency's stand at the Royal Show and the Festival of Food and Farming. Publications covers the cost of the Agency's Annual Report, Corporate Plan and information leaflets supplied to our customers. The Agency's 1995–96 budget has not yet been disaggregated sufficiently to allow comparable figures to be extracted, but expenditure is expected to be comparable with the previous year. The Agency has had no involvement in any privatisation. None of the publications or publicity campaigns has cost over £50,000.

Letter from Dr. J. M. Rutter to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 3 April 1995: The Minister has asked me to reply on behalf of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) to your question about expenditure on publicity, publication and pamphlets, as this is an operational matter for which I am responsible. The VMD was established as a Next Steps Agency in April 1990, but did not maintain its own accounts until 1991/92. Expenditure prior to that date will therefore be included with that for core MAFF. There has been no privatisation related expenditure incurred by the VMD, and the total expenditure on all forms of publicity, publications and pamphlets is as follows:

Year	Total Expenditure
	Actual	At 1994 prices
1991/92	7,730.33	8,449.64
1992/93	21,339.06	22,431.88
1993/94	59,420.91	60,609.33
1994/95 (forecast)	27,978.03	27,978.03
1995/96 (budgeted)	28,400.00	27,500.00

160W The above figures include the VMD's Annual Report and Accounts and publicity relating to the safe use of organophosphorus sheep dips, as well as expenditure on the VMD's quarterly newsletter, MAVIS. During this period, there has been no publicity campaign or publication involving the expenditure of more than £50,000.

Letter from A. M. Kerr to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 31 March 1995: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply, in respect of the Pesticides Safety Directorate, to your question about expenditure on publicity, publications and pamphlets. All the costs detailed below have been adjusted to reflect 1994/95 prices using H M Treasury's assumptions of GDP deflators at market prices. The Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) incurred expenditure totalling £15,290 on publicity in 1993/94 in connection with the launch of the Agency. No expenditure on publicity has been incurred in 1994/95. There is no budget provision in 1995/96 for publicity. Expenditure on publications and pamphlets totalled £2,335 in 1993/94 and £21,398 in 1994/95. The budgeted figure for 1995/96 covering publications and pamphlets is £42,307. The costs of other publications, published by HMSO on behalf of PSD, are borne by HMSO who aim to recover the costs from sales revenue. Costs of producing other publications and pamphlets with a wider Food Safety emphasis have been borne centrally and are therefore covered in the core MAFF return. None of the above expenditure was privatization related. There has been no expenditure in excess of £50,000 incurred on any individual publicity campaign, publication or pamphlet. As PSD was established as an agency on 1 April 1993 figures prior to this date are not available.

Letter from Dr. J. M. Walsh to Mr. Malcolm Bruce, dated 31 March 1995: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply on his behalf to the question which you tabled on 14 March (No. 832). In this you sought information for the core Department and for each of the Agencies concerning the total expenditure on (a) all forms of publicity and (b) all publications and pamphlets produced by the Department. The information that you require is as follows:

Expenditure
	All forms of publicity (excluding publications) £	Publications £
1992/93¹	278,000	146,000
1993/94	313,000	218,000
1994/95	359,000	249,000
¹ ADAS was formed as an Executive Agency in 1992.

Currently, the budgeted figure for 1995/96 has not been agreed. Expenditure on all forms of publicity is used to inform our 32,000 fee-paying customers about ADAS' products and MAFF/Welsh Office policy implementation (this Agency is jointed owned by the MAFF and the Welsh Office). The 1994/95 expenditure on all forms of publicity represent 0.5% of our £75 million revenue. The only publication exceeding £50,000 was "Agricultural Strategy" which was produced in 1994. This outlined the future for each sector of the British agricultural industry. It was distributed to clients and potential clients throughout England and Wales.