HC Deb 08 January 2001 vol 360 cc393-4W
Mrs. May

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what the cost has been to date of producing and distributing circulars, guidance and information from his Department to(a) local education authorities, (b) schools and (c) individual teachers, since May 1997. [142286]

Mr. Wills

[holding answer 12 December 2000]: The Department produces a large number of publications, including those targeting schools, local education authorities (LEAs) and individual teachers. We do not centrally hold the details of the costs of producing and distributing materials to individual target audiences, and the information requested is available only at disproportionate cost.

Most publicity material for these audiences is funded from within: the schools communication budget (mostly circulars and guidance on school management); the advertising and publicity budget (including White and Green papers, policy documents and, from 1999–2000, the magazine for teachers); and a number of budgets to support individual programmes (including the literacy and numeracy strategies).

Spend against the schools communications budget was:

£
1997–1998 1
1998–1999 6,217,248
1999–2000 5,843,500
2000–2001 3,538,471
1Not Available

Note:

These figures include material sent to schools and material only available on request. They cover production, distribution, storage and requests for additional copies.

Within the advertising and publicity budget spend on material for these audiences was:

£
1997–1998 3,374,729
1998–1999 5,898,351

£
1999–2000 3,843,000
2000–20011 835,313
1To end of November 2000

Note:

These figures include production and distribution

The spend on information supporting the literacy and numeracy strategies was:

£
1997–1998 800,000
1998–1999 1,793,152
1999–2000 6,183,749
2000–20011 4,274,946
1To end of November 2000

Note:

These figures cover production and distribution