§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his Department's advertising budget for(a) 1999–2000 and (b) 2000–01. [110263]
§ Mr. Hain[holding answer 16 February 2000]: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not have any budgets dedicated solely to advertising. However, as part of the recruitment process, advertising is included in the overall costs.
For the financial year to date the FCO has spent £438,282 on recruitment advertising. This covers recruitment to all grades in the generalist and specialist cadres. Owing to the demand led nature of recruitment it is not possible to predict advertising costs for 2000–01.