HC Deb 22 February 1999 vol 326 cc193-5W
Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the expenditure incurred by his Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies on(a) the setting up and (b) the operation of web sites, indicating the cases in which the expenditure has been above that budgeted; and if he will list for each web site (i) the topics covered, (ii) the current average number of hits per month and (iii) the estimated expenditure on each web site for each of the next three years. [70972]

Mr. Fatchett

[holding answer 15 February 1999]The following is the information:

£
Set-up costs (including VAT) Running costs (per annum)
FCO website (http://www.fco.gov.uk) 53,490 35,000
FCO Publications Online (http://informationfrombritain.com) 85,767 17,866
Wilton Park Conference (http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk) 10,780 506.04
Planet Britain (http://www.planet-britain.org) 1— 28,200
British Council (http://www.britcoun.org) 90,000 72,000
Commonwealth Institute (http://www.comonwealth.org.uk) 2,000 1,000
GB-China Centre (http://www/gbcc.org.uk) 2,250 100
Britain-Russia Centre (http://briteastwest.easynet.co.uk) none 143

Set-up costs (including VAT) Running costs (per annum)
British Association for Central and Eastern Europe (http://ourwold.compuserve.com/homepages/BACEE/bacee.htm) none 90
1The Planet Britain website is an online version of a CD-ROM of the same name. Cable and Wireless provide free bandwidth and server space to host the site.

  1. i) The main FCO website covers British policy and the work of the FCO. Average monthly hits are 3.8 million.
  2. ii) The publications website is an online ordering catalogue for FCO publications. The site has registered 24,222 hits between its launch on 1 December 1998 to 5 February 1999.
  3. iii) The Wilton Park website gives details of Wilton Park conferences. It registers an average of 6,000 hits per month.
  4. iv) The Planet Britain website is aimed at a youth audience overseas and gives an overview of modern Britain (science, sport, culture, media etc.). It has registered 420,000 hits since May 1998 to date.
  5. v) The British Council website promotes the work of the Council worldwide and receives an average of 4 million hits per month.
  6. vi) The Commonwealth Institute website promotes the work of the Commonwealth in the UK and registers an average of 5–6,000 hits per month.
  7. vii) The Great Britain-China Centre website covers the work of that organisation and provides links to other related organisations. It receives approximately 1,600 hits per month.
  8. viii) The Britain-Russia Centre website covers the work of that organisation and receives approximately 250 hits per month.
  9. ix) The British Association for Central and Eastern Europe (BACEE) website covers the work of that organisation. It was launched on 25 January 1999 and user statistics are not yet available.

Estimated running costs for these websites are expected to remain roughly the same over the next three years. The FCO Publications website hopes to recover some costs from the sale of publications and the Great Britain-China Centre website hopes to offset some costs by carrying advertising.

Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 17 December 1998,Official Report, column 721, if he will list the expenditure not included in his answer incurred (a) by task forces and review bodies, (b) by focus groups, (c) on market research and (d) for publications and publicity; and if he will list the bodies which incurred the expenditure. [71013]

Mr. Fatchett

[holding answer 15 February 1999]Since May 1997 there has been no expenditure by task forces, review bodies or focus groups on public opinion research, television, radio and newspaper advertising, or direct mail. From centrally held funds there has been no expenditure on market research. £4,818,211 has been spent on publications and publicity commissioned through the Publications Section of the FCO's Information Department. This figure does not include publications for in-house communications purposes. It would involve disproportionate costs to establish what individual FCO posts may have spent on these activities from their devolved budgets.

Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 17 December 1998,Official Report, column 721, if he will list the expenditure not included in his answer incurred by (a) his agencies and non-departmental public bodies and (b) the Central Office of Information for relevant work carried out for his Department. [71012]

Mr. Fatchett

[holding answer 15 February 1999]I am asking the Chief Executives of FCO Agencies and non-departmental public bodies to write directly to the hon. Member with information on expenditure on(a) public opinion research, (b) television, radio and newspaper advertising, and (c) direct mail since May 1997.

The COI undertakes work for the FCO on a contractual basis competing with other providers. All expenditure incurred by the COI on work carried out on behalf of the FCO is included in my previous answer.

Mr. Maclean

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what(a) reviews, (b) task forces and (c) advisory groups have been established by his Department since 1 May 1997; what costs they have incurred to date; and what reports they have published. [71507]

Mr. Fatchett

Since 1 May 1997 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has established the following task forces, reviews and advisory groupsReview of the Criteria Used in Considering Licence Applications for the Export of Conventional Arms.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs announced the new criteria on 28 July 1997, Official Report, columns 26–29. There were no additional direct costs to this review. Review of Policy Towards the Remaining UK Overseas Territories.

The Government intend to publish a White Paper soon. The direct cost of this review is £4,342 to date. Panel 200 Advisory Group.

Panel 2000 published a consultation Document on 10 September 1998 which was laid before Parliament on the same date. The direct cost of this group is £49,519 to date.

The indirect office and staff costs of these reviews have been absorbed by the FCO.

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