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Departmental Expenditure

Volume 270: debated on Monday 29 January 1996

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To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the total expenditure of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies on publicity for each of the years (a) 1979–80, (b) 1989–90, (c) 1991–92, (d) 1993–94, (e) 1994–95 and (f) 1995–96 (i) to date and (ii) as estimated for the whole year; what estimate he has made of such expenditure for 1996–97; and if he will break these figures down to indicate expenditure on (1) advertising and (2) press and public relations. [11384]

Publicity expenditure is committed when there is a need to advise the public or inform them of their rights. Assessment takes account of policy objectives and prioritisation within available resources.Advertising and press office staff, accommodation and administration costs for my Department are as follows for 1979–80 to 1988–89:

YearAdvertisingPress
1979–802,904,671283,140
1980–811,649,605392,532
1981–821,834,476381,799

Year

Advertising

Press

1982–831,957,304424,290
1983–842,760,681516,632
1984–853,262,700560,512
1985–863,306,391606,996
1986–875,000,000548,136
1987–884,700,000599,282
1988–895,400,000674,945

From 1989–90 onwards, recording systems were improved to identify advertising and other publicity material such as publications, videos, exhibitions and posters:

Year

Advertising

Other publicity material

Press

1989–905,500,0003,088,065715,646
1990–915,728,0004,323,476786,519
1991–927,275,9403,600,288792,125
1992–937,334,6355,638,982835,441
1993–949,090,2225,062,327847,632
1994–9510,912,0083,190,350899,084
1995–9617,398,6291,387,550727,169
1995–9627,398,629'3,387,550969,560
1996–9724,150,0003,750,000993,799

1Year to date

2Forecast

Press and publicity expenditure by my Department's Agencies was as follows:

Agency/Year

Advertising and publicity material

Press

Prison Service

1993–94206,900304,800
1994–95200,500594,900
1995–96 forecast228,400319,900
1996–97 forecast213,300318,200

Fire Service College

1992–9389,300
1993–9455,700
1994–9534,600
1995–96 forecast24,3706,000
1996–97 forecast30,0006,000

Passport Agency

1991–9270,35762,492
1992–9367,45456,880
1993–9470,94568,981
1994–95127,040256,693
1995–96 forecast94,814160,701
1996–97Budgets not yet decided

Forensic Science Service

Under the Forensic Science Service agency's framework, document, press and publicity services are provided by the Home Office. These are marginal and are included in the Departmental spend.

It has not been possible in the time available for agencies to provide precise 1995–96 year to date figures, but they expect no substantial divergence from forecast.

I shall write to the hon. Member concerning publicity and press expenditure by my Department's non-departmental public bodies.