The Department uses marketing companies for raising public awareness on specific issues. Public relations agencies are employed for specific communications tasks, most commonly working alongside our press office to provide campaign support in local, regional and specialist media.
The expenditure figures in the following table relate to the Central Office of Information’s Public Relations Framework and have been provided on a financial year basis, following guidance provided centrally by the Cabinet Office.
Company 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 Band and Brown Communications 19,616 — 158,886 126,868 Blue Rubicon Ltd. — 83,378 184,057 185,024 Cohn and Wolfe — 250,000 — — Consolidated Communications Management Ltd. 476,711 763,718 102,722 — Fishburn Hedges — — 71,396 52,652 Geronimo Communications — — — 35,815 JFL Search and Selection — 209,849 48,660 — Portfolio Metrica Ltd. — 6,325 — — Team Talk Training — — — 18,392 The Red Consultancy Ltd. — 59,880 458,531 143,280 Total 496,327 1,373,150 1,024,252 562,031
(2) how many staff from public relations or public affairs firms or consultancies have been seconded to his Department and its predecessor in each of the last five years.
Since my Department was formed as part of the Machinery of Government changes on 28 June 2007, no staff have been seconded to or from public relations or public affairs firms, or consultancies.
Information for the previous years regarding the predecessor Department (the Department for Education and Skills) is not available.