To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether his Department and its agencies have incurred expenditure on Google AdWords campaigns in the last 12 months. (323693)

Google AdWords help connect an organisation with potential customers by placing relevant advertisements on the right-hand-side of Google search results pages.

The nature of the public services delivered by the Ministry of Justice—principally administering the courts, prisons, probation and tribunals systems—do not generally involve advertising, via any medium, to reach their target audience.

We are aware of only one instance where Google AdWords has been used to communicate the Department's services in the last 12 months. This involved expenditure of £759.42 on ‘The Community Payback Campaign’.

All expenditure by the Ministry of Justice is undertaken in accordance with the principles of regularity, propriety and value for money contained in HM Treasury's ‘Managing Public Money’ and in pursuit of departmental aims and objectives.