Departmental Expenditure (Hansard, 26 January 1996)

§ Mr. Malcolm Bruce
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate he has made of the annual telephone costs to(a) his Department, (b) his Department's agencies and (c) his Department's non-departmental public bodies staff for each of the years (i) 1979–80, (ii) 1989–90, (iii) 1991–92 (iv) 1993–94, (v) 1994–95, (vi) 1995–96 and (vii) 1996–97; and if internal telephone directories are available to staff in all areas of (a) to (c). [11390]

Mr. John M. Taylor
[holding answer 25 January 1996]Details of departmental telephone costs prior to 1991–92 are not readily available. Comparison of the figures for successive years must be treated with caution as they are affected by major accommodation moves and, for the DTI agencies and regional Government offices, only include the use of the Government telephone network, other charges being met from local budgets.

1991–92: £3.2 million

1992–93: £4.2 million

1993–94: £3.9 million

1994–95: £2.9 million

1995–96: £3.3 million(anticipated)

Internal telephone directories are available to staff in the Department and its agencies. Non-departmental public bodies are not listed in these but can receive copies.

§ Mr. Bruce
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the total expenditure of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies on publicity for each of the years(a) 1979–80, (b) 1989–90, (c) 1991–92, (d) 1993–94, (e) 1994–95 and (f) 1995–96 (i) to date and (ii) as estimated for the whole year; what estimate he has made of such expenditure for 1996–97; and if he will break these figures down to indicate expenditure on (1) advertising and (2) press and public relations [11388]

Mr. Taylor
[holding answer 25 January 1996]Total Departmental expenditure on publicity is not held centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
Total advertising expenditure from centrally managed budgets for the years in question is as follows:

1979–80: £1,554,000

1989–90: £10,492,000

1991–92: £966,000

1993–94: £784,000

1994–95: £561,000

1995–96: £530,000 (spend to end December 1995)

The budgets for 1995–96 and 1996–97 are not broken down by media.
Press and public relation costs, as reflected through the costs associated with the Department's press office, are as follows:

1993–94: £1,987,000

1994–95: £1,766,000

1995–96: £1,212,000 (spend to end December 1995)

Budgets for 1995–96 and 1996–97 do not specifically separate out press and public relations costs. For the comparable expenditure in earlier years, I refer the hon. 428W Member to answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister for Energy on 2 June 1992, Official Report, column 492–93.