(2) how much was spent on advertising by (a) the Department and (b) its non-departmental agencies in each of the last five years.
The Law Officers’ Departments advertise solely for recruitment purposes, with one exception: within the Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol) the specialist Bona Vacantia division regularly places advertisements in the press seeking kin in cases where individuals have died intestate with no apparent claimants to the estate under administration. The costs for this activity are treated as an expense on the Crown Nominee’s Account that is presented separately to Parliament.
The Law Officers’ Departments’ expenditure in the last five years on recruitment was as follows:
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 TSol 132,718 128,124 50,786 125,611 *132,891 HMCPSI 15,283 53,859 11,914 54,332 63,875 RCPO n/a n/a n/a 9,634 9,634 SFO n/a 7,252 26,745 42,236 51,259 CPS n/a n/a n/a 356,986 437,881 Totals 148,001 189,235 89,445 588,769 695,540 n/a = not available
The Treasury Solicitor also handles recruitment advertising for the Attorney General’s Office, and for HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.
The Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office was established in April 2005 and therefore has no data before this.
The Crown Prosecution Service recruitment advertising costs prior to 2005 are not available as they are not recorded centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The Serious Fraud Office uses the services of a media agency, WDAD, who are an approved supplier under a Cabinet Office framework.
The CPS uses Barkers to place its advertisements through a Central Office of Information contract.