HC Deb 09 November 2001 vol 374 cc431-2W
Angus Robertson

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the total expenditure was on(a) advertising, (b) polling, (c) focus groups, (d) design consultants, (e) caterers, (f) production of departmental publications and (g) photographs/photographers by her Department for each year since 1995 in (i) cash and (ii) real terms; what was (A) the annual percentage increase in spending on each category and (B) spending on each category as a percentage of the total departmental running costs; and if she will make a statement. [6930]

Clare Short

Expenditure in relation to publications, opinion polling and photography in the years in question is as follows.

£000
Publications1 Opinion polling Photography
1995–96 352 4
1996–97 318 4
1997–98 166 43 21
1998–99 347 23
1999–2000 570 45 10
2000–01 639 58 5
1 Including design costs

We do not hold a separate advertising budget. However the bulk of our advertising is in relation to recruitment, on which we spend around £1 million to £1.2 million per year.

It would involve disproportionate effort to calculate the total cost of catering services in the years in question since these are not charged to a single budget.The majority of the expenditure set out in the table is charged to programme budgets, and so it is not possible to make a meaningful calculation of its share of our running cost budget.

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