To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much (a) his Department and its agencies and (b) companies contracted by his Department and its agencies have spent on celebrity endorsements and appearances relating to projects sponsored by his Department in each of the last three years. (319126)

The Department's central Communication Directorate incurred the following fees for the use of celebrities over the last three financial years, either directly or through contracted companies:

2007-08: £200,000 for work on the Fire Kills public safety campaign

2008-09: £211,500 for work on the Fire Kills public safety campaign and the REACH BME role models campaign

2009-10: (To February 2010) - £27,500 for work on the Fire Kills public safety campaign and the Ordinary People, Extraordinary Career Fire and Rescue Service recruitment campaign

These costs exclude fees paid to celebrities or other publicly known individuals, who worked for the Department as voice over artists or in another capacity to which their celebrity status was not relevant to the work conducted.

They include fees paid to celebrities or other publicly known individuals for a range of activity not strictly defined as 'endorsements or appearances' where the individual's public status was of perceived benefit to the Department.

Information relating to use of celebrities by the Department's agencies could be provided only at disproportionate cost.