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Departmental Advertising

Volume 503: debated on Wednesday 13 January 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has spent on (a) print, (b) online, (c) television and (d) radio advertising in each of the last five years; how much has been spent on advertising in 2009-10 to date; and what percentage of advertising expenditure in each year was managed by the Central Office of Information. [Official Report, 27 January 2010, Vol. 504, c. 5MC.] (309901)

The majority of advertising conducted by the Ministry of Defence is part of the drive to recruit the best personnel to the armed forces. The recruitment advertising for the armed forces is conducted through the Central Office of Information, and those costs are shown in the following table.

Armed forces recruitment media spend

£ million

Print (press and poster)

Online and interactive TV

TV and cinema

Radio

2004-05

2.0

0.8

26.3

2.3

2005-06

2.5

1.6

15.2

2.2

2006-07

1.8

2.3

10.1

1.3

2007-08

5.2

2.8

18.7

1.6

2008-09

3.6

4.3

17.4

1.5

The Department may promote other initiatives such as armed forces day. Spend relating to these activities, where it is available centrally, is shown in the following table. The figures given include creative and production costs, as well as media spend. Figures are not available centrally for all advertising spend and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Spend (£ million)

2004-05

23.8

2005-06

23.5

2006-07

21.0

2007-08

33.6

2008-09

37.4

Figures are not available prior to financial year 2004-05 and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Figures for 2009-10 are not yet available.