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Public Information

Volume 449: debated on Monday 11 September 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent on his Department's public relations and information services in each of the last five years for which figures are available. (48957)

Information services are defined as websites and phone lines set up for campaigns. The following table shows expenditure on phone lines established for campaigns.

Phone line information service expenditure by year

£

Police recruitment

Car security

Year of the volunteer

2001-02

241,273

2002-03

258,962

23,095

2003-04

348,236

2004-05

179,648

12,707

2005-06

92,818

To obtain the information regarding websites would incur disproportionate costs.

Public relations are handled by the Department's press office—costs for the last five years are in the following table.

£Financial yearTotal2000-0112,446,2272001-0222,078,7232002-033,009,4892003-042,959,9662004-052,777,5782005-063,113,249 1 2000-01. Expansion of the Home Office press office followed an external consultant's review of its staffing and operation in 1999 and recommended the creation of the Newsdesk to better meet the demands of the 24-hour media. This improved efficiency from 'losing' in excess of 20 per cent. of the calls pre-expansion, to a positive where from June 2003 to June 2004, 91.8 per cent. of 61,070 calls received by the Newsdesk were answered. 2 2001-02. The Home Office press office and the Prison Service press office merged in May 2001.