HC Deb 03 March 1999 vol 326 c785W
Mr. Swayne

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what arrangements he has made to measure the effectiveness of his Department's media campaign to encourage people to vote in the Assembly election. [73006]

Mr. Michael

We have set in place evaluation research which involves two telephone surveys of the general public in Wales, wave 1 took place in January 1999 and wave 2 is planned for May 1999. It has been designed to measure shifts in attitudes along key variables identified by the campaign messages (as identified by the agency Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury). The sample is 1,500 members of the general public constructed to be representative of the five EC regions and in terms of sex, age, social class and the proportion of the population who are Welsh speaking.

Mr. Swayne

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the companies which tendered for the contract to publicise the Assembly elections. [73007]

Mr. Michael

The following agencies tendered for the contract (a) Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury in partnership with Bell Pottinger Good Relations (b) Wight Collins Rutherford Scott in partnership with Golley Slater (c) Ogilvy and Mather in partnership with Mark Williams Associates (d) Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper in partnership with the Petersen Partnership.

All the above agencies were approved and endorsed by the government's Advisory Committee on Advertising. Bids (a) and (c) were shortlisted for presentations to the Secretary of State for Wales.