To ask Her Majesty's Government what was their expenditure on advertising by issue and by department in each of the last five financial years for which figures are available. [HL3404]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Central Office of Information. I have asked the chief executive to reply.

Letter from chief executive, Central Office of Information, dated 23 June 2009.

As Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information (COI), I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question on the advertising expenditure within Her Majesty’s Government (HMG).

The Central Office of Information publishes total expenditure on advertising in its Annual Report and Accounts, copies of which are available in the Library of the House. The published figure is split between media and non-media spend. An example of non-media spend would be production costs etc.

It should be noted that this figure is the total expenditure through COI and should not be taken as the total spend for HMG.