HC Deb 17 October 2001 vol 372 c1225W
Pete Wishart

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 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. [6882]

Ms Hewitt

Excluding its agencies and non-departmental public bodies, the total cash expenditure on publishing, preparation and production of those official publications, which have been notified to the Department's publications unit by individual budget holders, is as follows:

Year Cash (£) Real (1995 prices) (£) Per cent. increase in real terms from previous year Spending as percent. of total running costs
1995–96 5,463,340 5,463,340 n/a 1.2
1996–97 5,176,892 5,011,512 –8.3 1.2
1997–98 4,886,238 4,596,649 –8.3 1.2
1998–99 7,208,674 6,583,264 43.2 1.7
1999–2000 4,552,019 4,064,303 –38.3 1.0
2000–01 5,298,296 4,647,628 14.4 1.1

These figures exclude the costs of publications produced for internal use. Where the Department makes use of a private sector publisher, the publishing, printing and design costs are generally met by the publisher as part of its acceptance of the risks of publication.

The Department does not routinely collect the other information requested at the required level of detail, and to provide it would entail disproportionate cost.