HC Deb 24 January 2000 vol 343 cc68-9W
Mr. Key

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his expenditure was on national recruitment advertising in(a) cinemas, (b) television, (c) radio, (d) print and (e) posters during each month since April 1999; and what his monthly budget is in each category for (i) January, (ii) February and (iii) March 2000. [106184]

Mr. Spellar

The national recruitment advertising expenditure for the categories requested, in respect of the Naval Service and the RAF, broken down by month is as follows:

£
Cinema Television Radio Print Posters
Naval Service (actual)
April 36,035
May 52,703 7,637 189,532
June 105,406 8,336 99,472
July 190,178 10,900 18,992 152,786 23,076
August 188,140 4,350 16,373 265,428 25,859
September 206,736 2,350 67,511 179,964
October 156,071 8,248 128,865
November 158,109 1,316 303,444
December 17,625 15,000 91,355
(planned)
January 206,736 812,000 97,259
February 206,736 184,866
March 105,406 163,876
RAF
(actual)
April 40,428
May 24,816
June 550,000 425,385 33,164
July 3,000 212,341
August 24,300 2,614
September 40,938 251,216
October 148,034
November 137,319
December 64,756
(planned)
January 35,079
February 50,000
March 200,000 43,610

The Army do not maintain records of recruit advertising spend on a monthly basis. The general pattern of advertising runs in cycles with the peaks occurring in April/May and September. The expenditure, inclusive of the Regular Army and the Territorial Army, broken down where possible, is as follows:

£
April-December 1999 January-March 1999
Cinema
Television 3,015,279 850,000
Radio 535,274 425,000
Print 1,109,760 240,000
Posters 138,431 40,000

The hon. Member may also wish to know that, in addition to the above expenditure, the Armed Forces spent about £267,000 on advertising via the Internet from April to December 1999, with a further forecast spend of £120,000 between January and March 2000.

Recruitment advertising expenditure for MOD civilians is not held in the form requested. However, the total forecast expenditure on national recruitment advertising for civilian recruitment for financial year 1999–2000 is £4.4 million.