HC Deb 07 January 2004 vol 416 c411W
Mr. Ancram

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the total expenditure on(a) information campaigns and (b) advertising was for his Department for each year since 1997.[145405]

Mr. Straw

[holding answer 6 January 2004]The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's planned expenditure on information campaigns in financial year 2003–04 is £6,485,000.00, which includes £1.9 million on a "Think UK" campaign in China, plus £360,000 for the development of campaigns in Central Europe (partnerships with accession states) and North America (UK Science and Technology) to run in 2004; A £2.4 million public diplomacy challenge fund which will support 81 projects in 51 different countries; £825,000 on a major FCO web infrastructure project, which includes www.i-uk.com; a central portal site to promote the UK overseas jointly with our public diplomacy partners (British Council, UK Trade and Investment and VisitBritain); £600,000 on generic public diplomacy publications £200,000 for public diplomacy activity promoting the UK's science and technology achievements overseas. £200,000 to raise public awareness within the UK of the benefits and opportunities of EU enlargement.

In addition, the FCO provides grant-in-aid of: £166.04 million to the British Council £220 million to the BBC World Service

In the year 2002–03 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's separately identifiable expenditure on advertising totalled £602,670. The bulk of this comprised of media spend for consular publicity campaigns, which are aimed at encouraging UK travellers to be better prepared before going overseas, and advertising for recruitment purposes

In the year 2003–04 planned separately identifiable expenditure on advertising totals £317,000

I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the answer my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Bill Rammell) gave to the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Julie Kirkbride) today (UIN 145801) for details of expenditure on recruitment advertisement between April 2002 and March 2003

To provide a breakdown of expenditure each year since 1997 could be provided only at disproportionate costs.

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