HC Deb 05 February 2004 vol 417 cc1027-9W
Malcolm Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much(a) his Department and (b) each agency and non-departmental public body sponsored by his Department spent on (i) advertising and (ii) information campaigns in each year since 1995–96; what his estimate is for 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [149724]

Mr. Charles Clarke

[holding answer 21 January 2004]: Expenditure on information campaigns from the Department's central advertising and publicity budget is set out as follows. In addition to expenditure from this central budget, expenditure from budgets allocated to individual programmes will also include spend on publicity related activity. It is not possible, except at disproportionate cost, to separately identify all such publicity related expenditure. It is, however, possible to identify separately the Department's total expenditure on advertising, and this is also set out as follows:

Advertising and publicity budget
£000
1995–96 1
1996–97 1
1997–98 10,879
1998–99 13,426
1999–2000 9,902
2000–01 14,595
2001–02 11,688
2002–03 14,089
2003–042 17,092
1 Not available
2 Estimated
Total departmental spend on advertising
£0001
1995–962 8,296
1996–97 7,538
1997–98 9,992
1998–99 15,673
1999–2000 11,900
2000–01 29,066
2001–02 20,489
2002–03 11,261
2003–043 17,984
1 These figures include spend on advertising from the central advertising and publicity budget
2 Employment Department and Department for Education
3 Estimated

The spend on advertising fluctuates from year to year. Some campaigns will run over financial years and billing will fall in the later period. The main reasons for the rise in estimated spend on advertising in 2003–04 are: the increased spend on the aimhigher campaign, which targets 13 to 16-year-olds with no history of higher education in their family about the benefits of higher education and gives 16 to 19-year-olds information about how to apply to university and the financial help available to them; increased promotion of Foundation Degrees to employers; and upweighting of publicity for the Connexions service to teenagers

Information on expenditure by agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally.