To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many complaints about advertisements sponsored or funded by his Department were made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in each year from 1997 to 2008; and how many of these were upheld by the ASA in each year. (246648)

This information is not held by the MOD; however, the Advertising Standards Authority report that between January 1997 and December 2008 the following complaints were made about MOD sponsored advertisements:

Royal Navy: four complaints about four cases, none of which were upheld.

Army: 92 complaints about 76 cases, none of which were upheld.

RAF: seven complaints received about seven cases, one of which remains under investigation while the remaining six were not upheld.

These statistics do not include complaints about TV or Radio broadcasts made between 1997 and 2006 as this information is not centrally held.